Why rest on Sunday? It’s not really the Sabbath

Hi Mason and Teo,
My husband and I are Catholics and my father-in-law is a Seventh Day Adventist. I dread going to family parties because my father-in-law tends to ask questions about my religion. I don’t know why he doesn’t ask my husband about it, but he always seems to approach me. Could you please help me answer one of his questions: Why does the Catholic Church worship on Sunday instead of the Sabbath (Saturday)? He says that God commanded that we keep the Sabbath day holy, which is the seventh day, Saturday, and that we Catholics have no authority to change it. (Dreading Discussion)

Dear Dreading,

Please look at your father-in-law’s inquiries not so much with dread but as moments to share the beautiful traditions of the Catholic Church. They are also opportunities for you to seek out the truth and we thank you for considering our ministry as together we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and his church.

Here is what the church teaches as to why Catholic Christians celebrate on Sunday instead of Saturday.

God instituted the Jewish Sabbath so that one day of the week would be set aside to honor him, as creator, as well as to serve as a memorial of Israel’s freedom from slavery in Egypt.

Jesus Christ, through his passion, death and resurrection (the Paschal Mystery), fulfilled the “spiritual truth” of the Jewish Sabbath. Jesus taught the early church to fulfill the Sabbath and commemorate his paschal mystery on the first day of the week, Sunday.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states, “For Christians, its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath,” fulfilling “the moral command of the Old Covenant” (CCC 2175-2176). Jesus, as the Son of God, has the authority over the Sabbath.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). And it is Jesus who gave this authority to his apostles and his church (Matthew 10:40, Matthew 18:18).

In all four Gospel accounts, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the day after the Jewish Sabbath, the first day of the week, Sunday (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 14:1, John 10:1).

The Catholic Catechism points to the significance of that fact: “Because it is the ‘first day,’ the day of Christ’s Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the ‘eighth day’ following the Sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day” (CCC 2174).

Through his Paschal Mystery, Jesus Christ did more than save us from earthly bondage; He saved us from spiritual slavery, freedom from sin. The early Christians recognized that their weekly, communal celebration of the Mass — the ongoing re-presentation of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection was more appropriately carried out on Sunday.

They also recognized that they had to differentiate themselves from the Jews, gradually abandoning Judaism’s system of ritual animal sacrifices, circumcision and ceremonial food laws, such as kosher rules and dietary restrictions.

St. Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch and student of the Apostle John, wrote: “Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but the Lord’s Day, in which our life is blessed by Him and by His death” (CCC 2175).

St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Hebrews 8:8-9, 13: “The days will come, says the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel … not like the covenant I made with their fathers … In speaking of a new covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.”

Jesus Christ came and established a new covenant with his people. Thus, it is fitting to honor God the Father by honoring and offering his Son, Jesus Christ, through the sacrifice of the Mass.

To honor Jesus we must follow his teachings, which he has commissioned his Apostles and his church to pass on (Matthew 16:18-19). To honor the church’s teaching on the Lord’s Day is to honor Christ who in turn honors God.

The Catholic Church’s Sunday worship celebration is one outward sign of the fulfillment of the old covenant in the new.