Expert: Fr. Michael - 4/27/2004

Question
Hello,

How are you today. I was wonderering since the Sabbath is on Saturday and God said that the Sabbath was a commandment to be kept forever. Then why do Christians worship on Sunday when even Jesus himself kept the Sabbath. From a newborn in the Lord. Thank you very much.

Answer
You are thinking Old Covenant.  You will find in New Testament Scripture that the Lord's Day was transfered, after Our Lord's Resurrection, by His Apostles to Sunday, the Day of the Resurrection.  As the Vulgate puts it, "una Sabbatorum," the first day of the Sabbaths, that is, the first day of the week, what we call Sunday.

The veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom at Our Lord's crucifixion, signifying that the Old Covenant centered around the Temple worship was at an end, and the New Covenant, promised in the Old Testament, centered around the Mass, had come.  The Jews retained the old Sabbath because they rejected their Messias.