Christians have worshipped on Sunday, instead of the
Sabbath, since the days of the Apostles. But the practice of observing the
Lord’s Day (i.e. Sunday) instead of the Sabbath seems to some to be contrary
to the Ten Commandments. Groups such as the Seventh-Day Adventists object to
Sunday worship as being a violation of God’s commands. They criticize the
Catholic Church for “changing” one of God’s eternal decrees. Let’s examine
the scriptural evidence to see what conclusions we should draw.
First, note that in Exodus 20:8-10, the Lord God said to Moses, “Remember
the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your
work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall
not do any work . . .”. This commandment was a “perpetual covenant” that
God wanted His people to observe through the ages (cf. Exodus 31:16-18; cf.
Deut. 5:12). Henceforth, the Jews have observed the Sabbath on Saturday,
resting from all work and emulating God’s own rest on the Seventh Day of
creation (cf. Genesis 2:1-3).
This commandment was not abandoned by the Catholic Church, as some
erroneously claim. Rather, observance of the Third Commandment to “keep holy
the Sabbath” was transferred to Sunday, also known as “The Lord’s
Day” (cf. Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; ), because it is through His Resurrection
that we become a “new creation” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Galatians 6:15).
Around the year A.D. 100, the Didache instructed Christians to
“gather together on the Lord’s Day.” In A.D. 155, St. Justin Martyr wrote a
letter to the Roman emperor mentioning that the early Church celebrated the
Eucharistic Liturgy on Sundays instead of Saturday. This practice was
already universal.
The primary reasons the early Church transferred the observance of the Third
Commandment from Saturday to Sunday are these:
1) Sunday is the day Christ rose from the dead (cf. Matthew 28:1-6; John
20:1). And as St. Paul said, if Christ did not rise from the dead, we
are the most pitiable of people because our faith is in vain.
2) The early Christians sought to differentiate themselves from the Judaism.
This included their abandonment of Judaism’s system of ritual animal
sacrifices. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World
[cf. John 1:29, 36), and His perfect sacrifice replaced the Old Covenant
Passover lamb that was ritually slain and consumed as mere symbol of
sacrifice for sin. Similarly, circumcision, Jewish ceremonial rituals and
precepts, the Kosher food laws and dietary restrictions imposed by the Law
of Moses (c.f. Deut. 12:15-28; 14:3-21), and the observance of the Passover
and other Jewish feast days (cf. Col. 3:16-23) were also relinquished by
Christians.
3) The early Christians wanted to show forth the true meaning of the
Sabbath, which achieved its full purpose in the New Covenant of Christ, in
whom we find our perfect, ultimate rest. “Come to me, all you who are
heavily burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11: 28).
4) The Old Covenant (including the Sabbath, temple ceremonies, animal
sacrifice, etc.) prefigured in a shadowy, incomplete, and imperfect way the
perfect fulfillment by Christ in and through the New Covenant. The Old
Covenant observances were but “types and shadows of heavenly realities” (cf.
Hebrews 8:5; cf. Hebrews 10:1). Once the perfect had come, the imperfect
prefigurements passed away. This is as true of the way the Church observes
the Third Commandment as it is with baptism replacing the Old Covenant
ordinance of circumcision.
As St. Paul wrote, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in
questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a
sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance
belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17). And in Galatians 4:9-11 St.
Paul scolded Christians who still clung to the Old Covenant restrictions and
ceremonies. The ritual observance of the Sabbath was part of the Old
Covenant. But in Christ, we are no longer bound by the Old Covenant. So the
demands and obligations of the Old Covenant, including the ritual observance
of the Sabbath, have passed away, having been replaced by the spiritual
observance of the Sabbath in the New Covenant.
Interestingly, in Matthew 19:16-22, Christ enumerated all of the Ten
Commandments except for observing the Sabbath when he was asked what
one must do to be saved.
Seventh-Day Adventists, however, argue that the Catholic Church had no
authority to change the Third Commandment. But the fact is, the Catholic
Church was established by Christ and was granted by Him the authority to
“bind and loose” (cf. Matt: 18:18) and teach with His own authority (cf.
Luke 10:16, Matt. 28:18-20). Now, since Christ revealed that He is the Lord
even of the Sabbath day (cf. Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5), and that
the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” ( Mark 2:27), it
follows that His Church also has a share in that authority (cf. Matthew
10:40).
As Christ said to Simon Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19;
cf. 18:18-20).
Notice also that the Seventh-Day Adventists themselves do not observe the
“eternal commandment” of circumcision given by God to Abraham in Genesis 17.
This commandment predated the Ten Commandments given to Moses by hundreds of
years. It has no less weight of authority than the Ten Commandments. And
yet, as even Seventh-Day Adventists are forced to admit (since they do not
practice ritual circumcision), even though the Bibles shows that Jesus
Christ nowhere expressly taught that God’s commandment regarding
circumcision was to be changed to the sacrament of baptism, the Church had
the authority — His authority — to enact that change. In so doing, it
did not abandon God’s eternal commandment regarding circumcision, but
instead, it observed that commandment in a new and perfected form, that of
the sacrament of baptism (cf. Galatians 3:27-29; Colossians 2:11-12).
This is an excellent parallel with the Church’s authority to transfer the
observance of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. It was not an abandonment
of God’s Law, but rather a fulfillment and perfecting of that Law. As Christ
explained, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets;
I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to
you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from
the law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18).
Some additional Bible passages to study:
Luke 10:16
Acts 15
Acts 20:7
2 Corinthians 5:1-5
Galatians 5:2
Colossians 2:16-17
Related Catechism sections:
CCC 128-130, 2175, 2168-2196
