On Working on Sundays
by Elder Cleopa of Romania

In these days there are a lot of people who come to me and tell me that they are forced to work on Sundays and great feast days.  “Father, I have to go to work on Sunday, if I don’t, then I’ll be fired.”  Let me tell you something!  Do not get upset by this; whatever money you earn on Sunday, give to the poor!  Mercy and almsgiving surpass the observation of a special day.

Do you remember when the Savior was in the synagogue and healed the woman who had been bent over for eighteen years?  Remember how the leaders of the synagogue came forward in their hypocritical zeal for the law?  They could not speak against Christ directly, for the people would have killed them since they loved Him.  But the hypocrites said, “There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day” (Luke 13:14).

You know that the apostles picked ears of grain and ate them on the Sabbath.  How many miracles the Lord worked on Sabbath days, overturning the ideas of those who worshiped the Sabbath in mock righteousness.  What?  “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

So if you are forced by your employer to work on Sunday, then work, but work honestly, conscientiously, and do not steal anything, and whatever income you have from working on Sundays or feast days, give to the poor, for almsgiving and mercy are greater than the observance of a day!

* from The Veil (Vol. 13 No. 2), published by The Protection of the Holy Virgin Monastery, Lake George CO