Expert: Kaylan - 12/19/2005

Question
Hi, I'm very confused about this sabbath topic. These are my questions:
1)Does a sabbath still exist as a strict commandment to be obeyed?
2)If there is a sabbath is it saturday, sunday or any other day?

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Mark.

Answer
Mark,

Yes, the Third Commandment obligates Christians to worship on Sunday (or one can go to the Vigil Mass in the US).

The Third Commandment in more detail:

3. Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day.

These are mortal (grave) sins regarding the Third Commandment:

- Missing Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day of Obligation without a serious reason

- Doing unnecessary work on Sunday for a long period of time, i.e., more than several hours

- Intentional failure to fast or abstain on appointed days

- Requiring employees to work on Sunday in non-essential occupations ( I believe this does not obligate only managers but also customers. Thus no shopping/selling on Sundays unless necessary. Good Catholics, for example, still keep this Commandment and don't make others work or wait on them on Sunday.)

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Please check here: Sunday or Sabbath?
http://www.catholic.com/library/sabbath_or_sunday.asp

excerpts:

passages of Scripture such as Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, Colossians 2:16-17, and Revelation 1:10 indicate that, even during New Testament times, the Sabbath is no longer binding and that Christians are to worship on the Lord's day, Sunday, instead.

The early Church Fathers compared the observance of the Sabbath to the observance of the rite of circumcision, and from that they demonstrated that if the apostles abolished circumcision (Gal. 5:1-6), so also the observance of the Sabbath must have been abolished. The following quotations show that the first Christians understood this principle and gathered for worship on Sunday.

 
The Didache



"But every Lord's day . . . gather yourselves together and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned" (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).

 
The Letter of Barnabas



"We keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead" (Letter of Barnabas 15:6–8 [A.D. 74]).

 
Ignatius of Antioch



"[T]hose who were brought up in the ancient order of things [i.e. Jews] have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and by his death" (Letter to the Magnesians 8 [A.D. 110]).

 
Justin Martyr



"[W]e too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined [on] you—namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your heart. . . . [H]ow is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us—I speak of fleshly circumcision and Sabbaths and feasts? . . . God enjoined you to keep the Sabbath, and imposed on you other precepts for a sign, as I have already said, on account of your unrighteousness and that of your fathers . . ." (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 18, 21 [A.D. 155]).

"But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead" (First Apology 67 [A.D. 155]).

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You can find a historical reference and meaning to the Sabbath here:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13287b.htm

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And this last site has other questions that you might also be interested in which are related:
http://www.scborromeo.org/glad/glad.htm


Please let me know if you need more on this :)

Kaylan
"Jesus, I trust in You." - Divine Mercy Prayer
www.marian.org