THE COMMANDMENTS.
The Third Commandment (concl.):
Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

1. The custom of profaning Sunday is bad for society at large, which is often severely punished for the sin.
2. Serville work may be done on a Sunday when there is some real necessity for it and it is in connection with some charity, but in no case can it be urged as an excuse for not attending mass.
3. The higher occupations, by which we mean those in which the mind plays a larger part than the body, as, for example, reading and writing, are not prohibited on Sundays.
4. Nor is there any objection to innocent recreation such as tennis, badminton, croquet, &c., if indulged in moderation, but all dangerous amusements, which in the end do great harm, are strictly forbidden.
5. Besides Mass, the hearing of which is obligatory, the Church recommends attendance at sermons and the evening services.
6. Lastly, the Church also enjoins us on Sundays to perform various pious acts, such as going to communion, reading pious books, making the Stations of Cross, &c., and works of charity, such as visiting the sick and poor, and so on.
7. Under the old law the punishment for profaning the sabbath was death. And so the Scribes and Pharisees, who watched for every opportunity to catch Christ tripping, reproached Him with desecrating the Sabbath and also allowing His disciples to do the same thing. But Our Lord was able to show them over and over again that charity towards one's neighbour stood before the strict observance of the Sabbath. How He did this can be read in the following two extracts from St. Matthew and St. Luke respectively: « At that time Jesus went through the corn on the sabbath, and His disciples being hungry, began to pluck the ears and to eat. And the Pharisees seeing them, said to Him: « Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days ». But He said to them: « Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and they that were with him? How he entered into the house of God and did eat the loaves of proposition, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for them that were with him, but for the priests only? Or have ye not read in the law that on the sabbath days the priest in the temple break the Sabbath and are without blame? But I tell you that there is here a Greater than the temple and if you knew what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. You would never have condemned the innocent, for the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath ». And when He had passed from thence, He came into their synagogues, and behold there was a man who had a withered hand and they asked Him, saying: « Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? » that day might accuse Him. But He said to them: « What man shall there be among you that hath one sheep and if the same fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not take hold on it and lift it up? How much better is a man than a sheep! Therefore, it is lawful to do a good deed on the sabbath days ». Then He said to the man; « Stretch forth thy hand. » And he stretched it forth, and it was restored to health even as the other. And the Pharisees going out, made a consultation against Him, how they might destroy Him. » (Matt. XII, 1-14.) « And He was teaching in the synagogue on their sabbath. And behold there was a woman, who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bowed together, neither could she look upwards at all. Whom when Jesus saw, He called her unto Him, and said to her: « Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity ». And He laid His hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue (being angry that Jesus had healed on the sabbath) answering, said to the multitude: « Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them therefore come and be healed and not on the sabbath day ». And the Lord answering him, said: « Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you on the sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the manger and lead them to water and ought not this daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day ». And when He said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed. » (Luke XIII, 10-17.)

Explanation of the Plate.

8. We see in the upper picture Moses, by command of God, ordering the Israelites to stone a man who had collected firewood on the sabbath day (Num. XV, 32-36).
9. The small picture on the left shows Jesus, and behind Him His apostles, picking on the Sabbath some ears of corn with which to appease their hunger (See extract from St. Matthew above).
10. In the small picture on the right we see at the feet of Jesus the man with the withered hand, and, behind Him, some Scribes and Pharisees (See same extract).
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