Raymond J. de Souza: In the debate over the first day of the week, Shopify’s CEO is a lunartic!

Dimanchists — those who know that Sunday is the first day of the week, not Monday — have their priorities, and calendar, right

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Published Sep 01, 2024  •  Last updated 6 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke says the week begins on Monday. National Post columnist Fr. Raymond J. de Souza begs to differ. Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia

Canadian tech giant Tobi Lütke is a lunartic. By his own admission, Shopify is led by a lunartic!

Lütke and his fellow lunartics need to be resisted, in the name of all that is good and holy.

One might surmise that Shopify’s CEO would be a lunartic. The very site seeks to organize life around shopping. But a life lived serving the supremacy of shopping is lunacy.

Last Monday — of course! — Lütke made his solemn declaration: “The first day of the week is Monday. I (have) lived in North America for 23 years but I’m going to die on this hill. Sunday as the first day is just crazy talk.”

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Crazy talk? Dimanchists — those who know that Sunday is the first day of the week — are the sane ones. By Lütke’s logic, starting the year in January is crazy talk, because more activities begin in September. Labour Day should be New Year’s Day!

Dimanchists and lunartics — it helps to know les noms des jours en français — differ on whether Sunday or Monday is the first day of the week. It’s not much of a debate. The sun (Sunday) is more important than the moon (Monday). Both are essential for life on Earth, but the sun has clear priority.

The prevailing custom in Germany, where Lütke was born, is that Monntag is the first day of the week, not Sonntag, as in Canada. So Lütke wants us to change, along with the Americans. Isn’t it enough that we use metric?

The first day of the week is by definition arbitrary, but it carries deep meaning. It matters greatly which standard is used to arbitrate.

That Sunday is the first day of the week is a gift from the Jews, extending far beyond their tribe. The biblical account of creation has six days of work, Sunday to Friday, and then the day of rest, the Sabbath, Saturday. Shabbat is at the heart of Jewish identity, the day set aside for worship, for family, for rest — a day for a culture not based on commerce or work.

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Christians shifted the Sabbath to Sunday in honour of the resurrection, which took place on the “first day of the week.” Pace 21st-century Germans, Jesus did not rise on Monday morning.

The primacy of Sunday is not only important to religious believers though. I don’t know any of Lütke’s views, aside from his lunarticy, but Sunday is important for him, too, as well as his employees and his customers.

The concept of the weekend, where Saturday and Sunday are joined together as a break from work, is based on a flawed conception of human flourishing. It assigns the priority to labour and commerce, both of which are necessary, and then comes rest.

The presumption is that man needs rest so that he might be ready for more work. Work comes first. It’s not an uncommon view, and growing more so in a world of digital 24/7 commerce. Shopify, for practical purposes, does not have days or hours. All commerce, all the time.

The primacy of Sunday as a day set apart puts work into its proper place. Man lives, and therefore he needs to work. He does not live to work. Many people actually do. They need the Sabbath more than most.

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Orthodox Jews are the most visible observers of the Sabbath, the most adamant dimanchists. It’s difficult to keep Shabbat in the midst of a digital ocean that floods all available time, but those who keep the Sabbath speak of it as a great liberation. A limit is put to the tyranny of work and commerce.

Christians have largely given up their dimanchist birthright for a mess of lunartic pottage. Amongst Catholics it is common to hear reference to “weekend Masses.” It’s not intentional, but to say that Sunday Mass is at the “weekend” — rather than how we begin our week — erodes Christian culture and implies that the Gospels are wrong about the resurrection. A “weekend” mentality rather than a Sabbath or Lord’s Day culture is spiritually deadly.

In 1998, St. John Paul II sounded the alarm regarding this danger — to no discernible effect. He argued for the dimanchist view in humane, not specifically religious, terms.

“Through Sunday rest, daily concerns and tasks can find their proper perspective: the material things about which we worry give way to spiritual values; in a moment of encounter and less pressured exchange, we see the true face of the people with whom we live,” John Paul wrote. “Even the beauties of nature — too often marred by the desire to exploit, which turns against man himself — can be rediscovered and enjoyed to the full.”

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Going for a walk, playing together as a family, visiting the elderly, catching up with friends, reading a book, listening to music — all of these are somehow more human than mere commerce, with no denigration of the world of exchange. Exchanges are essential, but keep us engaged in the horizontal; we also need depth.

Shopify and its ilk expand time and eliminate space so that nothing impedes commerce. But living only in that horizontal limits one’s horizons. Even those who do not worship — especially those who do not worship — need liberation from a horizon defined by what we have rather than who we are.

What can be done? Keep Sunday at the head of the week. It matters. And don’t let online shopping intrude on Sunday. Give Lütke and the lunartics Monday; it’s their day.

National Post

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