A scruple over Sunday shopping

[drummerboy]

  I would like the opinion of others here over a scruple I'm having.  I recently had a relative over to set up our new PC, only to discover that I needed a new screen because of cable compatibility issues.  Even though it was Sunday, and I literally scrupulously avoid shopping and work on Sundays, we ran to a nearby store for a new screen, as I thought it unfair and inconveniencing my relative to make him leave then come back again next Sunday to set up the PC.  Didn't even take an hour.  Was I wrong?  I'm aware that if some serious need or inconvenience arises we are allowed (perhaps tolerated is a better word) to shop if we must.  But now I'm freaking out over if we lived in a Christiaan society the store wouldn't have even been open to begin with, so I'm somehow complicit. 

[james03]

Charity must come first.  Wasting your relative's time would have been bad.  This was a necessary trip to the store.  And you aren't perfect.  You didn't foresee the need for the screw.  It happens.

It seems like you routinely avoid shopping on Sunday.  So you are doing it right.  Do you think your avoiding shopping on Sunday benefits God one iota?  It is for your benefit only so that you will think about God, and you routinely do that.

[drummerboy]

Thanks!  That does make sense.  What did Jesus say?  Sabbath was made for man, not for God.

[james03]

Jesus had his apostles getting grain in the fields during the Sabbath.  The jews attacked Him for it.

If you have scruples, remember God makes excuses to save you, not condemn you.

[Heinrich]

Mention it in Confession and make all necessary considerations to never shop on Sunday again. Unnecessarily.

[diaduit]

online browsing? researching what you need in advance on Sunday, is that sinful?

[moneil]

I appreciated drummerboy's post as I've had the "opposite confusion" to sort out.  I grew up on a farm with backgrounding weaned beef calves in the winter, planting in the spring, irrigation in the summer, digging sugar beets in the fall, and milk cows to be attended to all along.  I took a degree in Animal Science and worked on dairy farms or as an artificial insemination technician most of my life.  Post retirement from that I'm an on-call assistant with a funeral home.  While a mortuary doesn't typically have the intensity of a dairy farm, fire department, or hospital ER they are pretty much a 24/7 operation.  I casually adopted the attitude that as long as I worked Mass in somehow (or made up for it with a daily Mass if that didn't work out) the rest of Sunday (or a Holy Day) was mine to do with as I needed (okay) but also to do with as I wanted (not necessarily okay).

I recall a story about a group of pilgrims who visited a desert monastery to spend the day in spiritual direction and prayer with the monks.  It was a strict fast day (the context was Eastern Catholic or Orthodox: no meat, fish, dairy, or oil I'm guessing) and the pilgrims were expecting a very spartan fare at the main meal but instead they were fed a scrumptious feast!  When the pilgrims asked the abbot what this was about he replied: "You are our special guests today and hospitality is a higher virtue than fasting.  We will fast another day to make up for it."  This is very apropos to James03's comment about the virtue of charity.  And both James03 and drummerboy referenced St. Mark's Gospel 2:23-28, specifically that "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath".

Along that line, a favorite elder relative of mine's father (my paternal great grandmother's brother) brought his family to Pasco in eastern Washington in 1901 with the Northern Pacific Railroad (now part of Burlington Northern Santa Fe).  Bill Hogan was killed in a rail yard accident the following year but the family stayed.  The "favorite elder relative", Alice Hogan West, told of how she helped younger brother go through pharmacy school following WWI, and he subsequently opened the Hogan Drug Company in Pasco.  Cousin Alice told me of how in "those days" (the 1920's – 1930's) the farm families would come into Pasco for church, traveling by horse and buggy or Model A or T Ford's on dirt roads.  It was customary for the Pasco shops to open for two hours after church on Sunday afternoon so that the farm families wouldn't necessarily need to arduously travel back to town for supplies later in the week.  With some understanding of the "temper of those times" I'm sure this was allowed by ecclesiastical approbation.

[drummerboy]

online browsing? researching what you need in advance on Sunday, is that sinful?

I believe he meant advance researching before Sunday came around. But I do agree with you, I avoid even online browsing as much as I can to keep the day holy and maintain the spirit of the law.

[drummerboy]

In response to Moneil's post: I've noticed alot of the Catholoc families shop on Sundays here as well.  They also must travel long distances, so Sunday really is the only day they can  get much grocery shopping in since all the good (as in inexpensive) stores are in the same town as church.  I cant see God expecting them to waste gas and time doing multiple 2 hour round trips every week.

Since you reference your background....did you know that storing the bull semen in egg white was developed here in WI by the UW? Before that it was air dropped, my dad remembers a neighboring farmer getting parachute drops of "fresh product."

[moneil]

Since you reference your background....did you know that storing the bull semen in egg white was developed here in WI by the UW? Before that it was air dropped, my dad remembers a neighboring farmer getting parachute drops of "fresh product."

My summer job (in western WA) while attending Washington State University (1969-1973) was as an AI tech with ABS Global, based in Deforest, WI.  The person I worked for had started with ABS in the 1940's ("frozen product" wasn't available until the 1960's) and "fresh product" was sent to Sea-Tac airport every other day from ABS's facility in Palo Alto, CA, packed in dry ice.  One of the techs of their partnership would divide up the shipment and send it by bus to the other four.  My boss told me that one time he had two calls but only enough "fresh product" for one service.  ABS used the egg extender but the local competitor co-op used homogenized milk.  He stopped at a local shop to purchase a quart and diluted out the product ... both cows got pregnant.

Fortunately, in response to the industrial revolution Pope Pius XII had allowed evening Masses by then (in my understanding, before the early 1950's Mass couldn't be said after noon), and I was able to get to Mass after work.

[Bonaventure]

Charity must come first.  Wasting your relative's time would have been bad.  This was a necessary trip to the store.  And you aren't perfect.  You didn't foresee the need for the screw.  It happens.

It seems like you routinely avoid shopping on Sunday.  So you are doing it right.  Do you think your avoiding shopping on Sunday benefits God one iota?  It is for your benefit only so that you will think about God, and you routinely do that.

Indeed.

Charity precedes piety.

Unnecessary shopping on Sunday would mean you deliberately, purposely, chose to do some unnecessary, excessive, needless shopping, "for the hell of it," on a Sunday, when you could've easily done so at some other time.

[Bonaventure]

Mention it in Confession and make all necessary considerations to never shop on Sunday again. Unnecessarily.

I don't think that he, as a scrupulous soul, should be confessing something "just in case."

That could make things worse and contribute to the spiral of scruples.

This is certainly not a clear cut example of willfully, deliberately choosing to unnecessarily shop when he had other times available.

It's not as if he is stating he accidentally fornicated or went to a party in a strip club, and did his best to avert his eyes.

[Bonaventure]

online browsing? researching what you need in advance on Sunday, is that sinful?

I believe he meant advance researching before Sunday came around. But I do agree with you, I avoid even online browsing as much as I can to keep the day holy and maintain the spirit of the law.

In my view that is excessive.

There is nothing servile in doing so.

I don't think anyone here would state that watching a football game on a Sunday is a sin. Yet, said act contributes to thousands of people having to work. Concessions, security, police, TV people, not to mention the players and coaches.

I suffered from scruples for years. You've got to draw a line.

[Bonaventure]

Thanks!  That does make sense.  What did Jesus say?  Sabbath was made for man, not for God.

He said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.