FACT CHECK! Why do Christians Worship God on Sunday and Not Saturday?

For our next article in the Fact Check series, we will be addressing the question of Sunday replacing Saturday as the day of worship for Christians. It may surprise some reading this that the groups which argue for the Saturday commemoration in the New Covenant (normally referenced as Sabbatarians) are actually a very small group statistically. They just happen to be a loud group that also engages their argument on social media and creates YouTube videos. This is not unlike what we see with proponents of the pre-trib Rapture theory or even the Flat Earth argument, for example. In Catholic circles, the same principle holds as well to the Sedevacantist theory. Statistically, the groups are very small, but they are good at making noise and getting the attention of others.

Those who hold to the man made tradition of still honoring the Sabbath on Saturday, rather than Sunday, in the New Covenant are a very small group compared to the vast majority of Protestantism. For example, in the United States alone, roughly 70% of adults identify as Christian. Of that number, roughly 3.5% make the argument that Christians are supposed to observe the Sabbath still on Saturday rather than Sunday. It is a very small number compared to the whole. That means 96.5% of self professed Christians observe this Commandment on Sunday.

It goes without saying that Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and the rest of the bunch who gave us the Protestant Revolution of the 16th century all observed it on Sunday as well. And these men are the foundation stones of Sola Scriptura, which is quite interesting. They taught that Sacred Scripture was the final court of appeals for truth concerning doctrines of faith and morals, and they believed it to be the ultimate authority for believers. And yet, they all observed the command, to keep the Sabbath day holy, on a Sunday in the New Covenant. It is very interesting indeed, considering that Sacred Scripture gives no explicit command to make the shift from Saturday to Sunday (although we do have implicit information on the topic in the New Testament). Rather, that directive comes explicitly from Sacred Tradition, as we shall soon see.

Regardless, the proponents of the “Saturday observance in the New Covenant” theory have built their house on the same shifting sand that their forefathers did in the Protestant Revolution. They hold to the grid of Private Interpretation, which is their first grave error. Secondly, they adhere to Sola Scriptura, which is the second grave error. Both of those tenets are merely the products of man made tradition, which is condemned by Our Lord in the very Scripture they profess to be their ultimate authority. It is due to this faulty edifice that they conjure up their idea of the Sabbath observance belonging still to Saturday in the New Covenant. It is completely wrong, and they are not giving God the proper worship owed to Him when they do this.

The history behind this position is interesting. Isolated and scattered heretical groups held to it in the Middle Ages, such as portions of the Waldenses sect. Other small groups during that era existed in places such as Hungary and Russia, but eventually they were completely assimilated into Judaism and ceased to exist as independent entities. There was also the Socinian sect in the 16th century which was never considered “Christian” because they were anti-Trinitarian in their theology. The idea had a revival in 17th century England, rooted in the Seventh Day Baptist church, thanks to the explosion of Protestantism. It really took its foothold with the advent of the Seventh Day Adventist sect, which was formed in 1863, and this is where the theory really developed any semblance of notoriety. The founders of this particular sect were influenced by the writings of a Millerite preacher named Thomas Preble, and he in turn credited his views to the teachings of Rachel Oakes Preston, who was a 19th century Seventh Day Baptist.

Here is the relevant passage in the Old Testament concerning the Sabbath commandment:

Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works. But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.”

So why was there this shift between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant in regards to the observance of this Commandment? Theologically, it has to do with the connection made to the Genesis account, in which the Lord made Heaven and Earth in six days and then rested on the seventh day. This “seventh day” rest was on Saturday, according to our modern calendar system. This is thus the Sabbath Day. Notice that He rested on this day from all His labor. In Exodus, He then calls His people to imitate Him in this rest. They are to labor and work for six days, and then they are called to rest on the Sabbath day. This “rest” is meant to commemorate God’s activity from the creation account of Genesis. So in the Old Covenant, God designated Saturday as a day to keep holy.

However, something radically changes with the coming of Our Lord. A new Covenant is ushered in, and with it, the entire Old Covenant Law now finds its fulfillment. As God rested on the seventh day after creating Heaven and Earth, now we have Our Lord working to restore all things to the Kingdom of God, since the Fall of Adam and Eve had brought about Original Sin and the dominion of Satan into a now fallen world. He is crucified on a Friday, securing the redemption of humanity. And then He also “rests” on the seventh day, insofar as He was in the tomb. However, on the “eighth day,” Sunday, also called “the Lord’s Day” and “the First Day of the Week,” He triumphantly rises from the dead, and now the recreation of all things is officially in play. Sanctifying grace now exists in the world, and God’s people are called to work alongside Him in restoring all things in Christ Jesus and waging spiritual war against the powers of Hell. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “We are God’s coworkers.” The restoration of all things has now been initiated and is underway, as Acts 3:21 teaches, “Heaven must receive Him until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” As Our Lord Himself says in Apocalypse 21:5, “Behold, I am making all things new.” So as God created and then rested in the Creation, so now God awakes from His rest in the Person of His Son and goes to work in recreating all things, to repair the damage done by Adam and Eve.

In Matthew 5:17, Our Lord teaches, “I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill.” He does not abolish the Law, but the New Covenant will be a fulfillment of the Old Covenant. So in regard to the worship owed to God, the command to observe the Sabbath is now moved to the “eighth day,” also called “The Lord’s Day,” because that is when Jesus rose from the dead. But one might ask, where does Sacred Scripture teach this? It does not teach it anywhere explicitly, but we do have implicit evidence that this change had already taken place. However, the unanimous testimony of the early Church reveals to us that it was clearly taught via Sacred Tradition, most likely from Our Lord to the Apostles prior to His Ascension, and then from them to their successors, as we shall examine shortly.

Before we get to the early Church, however, I still want to cover some important aspects revealed to us in Sacred Scripture that are pertinent to this topic. The first component has to do with God’s displeasure, at various times, with His people in the Old Covenant in how they profaned the Sabbath commandment.

Deuteronomy 5:12 teaches, “Observe the day of the sabbath, to sanctify it.” However, we see throughout the Old Testament that the Jewish people had a difficult time honoring this directive, to sanctify the Sabbath. In Ezekiel 20:12-16, God says: “Moreover I gave them also my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them: and that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel provoked me in the desert: they walked not in my statutes, and they cast away my judgments, which if a man do he shall live in them: and they grievously violated my sabbaths. I said therefore that I would pour out my indignation upon them in the desert, and would consume them. But I spared them for the sake of my name, lest it should be profaned before the nations, from which I brought them out, in their sight. So I lifted up my hand over them in the desert, not to bring them into the land which I had given them flowing with milk and honey, the best of all lands. Because they cast off my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, and violated my sabbaths: for their heart went after idols.”

In contrast to this, we see in Isaiah 58:13-14: “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is not found: to speak a word: Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

From the above accounts in Ezekiel and Isaiah, we learn that part and parcel with honoring this Commandment was glorifying God through a life of virtue, and with deeds of holiness, putting aside the self-will which is tainted with the disordered desire to fall into sin. This is an important reminder even for us in the New Covenant, that the purpose of having a day set aside to worship God is so we can bring Him glory, honor, praise, and adoration, as is proper for us to do. The primary way this is accomplished in the New Covenant is through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is Calvary represented to the Father. We are also called to utilize the day to grow in virtue and holiness, and to practice the works of mercy.

We also should make mention that the Sabbath Commandment itself was never intended to be a binding universal moral obligation, as proponents of the New Covenant Saturday theory try to argue. Their core argument is that, prior to the issuance of the Commandments in Exodus, God revealed this to be a part of the Natural Law in Genesis at the Creation. In the Genesis creation text, there is no command issued regarding a Sabbath rest involving creatures, nor is there any command regarding worshipping God on a Saturday. The only thing the text says is that God rested after He completed His work of creation in six days. Whether one wishes to argue that it is a good template for us to follow, it has no bearing on the passage itself since no directive is given in Genesis 1-2 that binds humanity to keep the Sabbath as a day of worship. The reason this point is so important in this discussion is because adherents to the New Covenant Saturday theory (the Sabbatarians) try to argue that, even prior to the Ten Commandments, this was established as a universal moral law from the Creation account, arising from the Divine Nature of God and thus binding on all people. However, we do not see it anywhere in Genesis. From the Natural Law, we would of course agree that mankind is bound to give obedience and worship to the true God. However, there is nothing in the Genesis account that specifies it needs to be on a Saturday. God may have had His reasons for designating Saturday as His preference at the time of the issuance of the Commandments with Moses, but He also could have His own reasons for designating a different day in the New Covenant. Either way, the Law to worship God remains in force, and the command to keep a day holy unto God remains valid.

This also explains why Our Lord tells the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Sabbatarian apologists try to back up their point by citing the Commandment narrative of Exodus 20, which was referenced above. However, even though the Exodus passage hearkens back to the Creation in an analogous sense, we still do not have any binding decree which emanates from the Creation itself in Genesis 2:1-3. Let us look at the passage directly: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” So we see that God created this day, blessed it, and then sanctified it. Apart from that, there is no binding law enforced upon humanity by God regarding this day. In Exodus 20, God commands that the day be kept holy, since it signifies the day that He rested. But again, nothing in either of these passages says anything about how this will all pan out in the New Covenant, when God goes to work in redeeming, restoring, and recreating the fallen world and a fallen humanity. There is no reference in Genesis of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob worshipping on the Sabbath and teaching others to do so as well. So the Saturday observance is not specific to the Natural Law, whereas worship owed to God is in the Natural Law. However, God is free to designate a preference for when, and how, He prefers to be worshipped. If it was on a Saturday in the Old Covenant as a way of commemorating the rest from Creation, then that is His prerogative. If it is then on a Sunday in the New Covenant as a way of commemorating the Redemption of Creation, that too is also His prerogative. The question is, how do we know it is God’s prerogative to designate “the First Day of the Week” as His preference in the New Covenant? Does Sacred Scripture reveal anything to us in this regard?

In the New Covenant, right in the book of Acts, we already see that a shift has taken place. But where did Jesus explicitly teach this in the Gospels? The answer is, He did not; you will not find any explicit reference from Our Lord in the Gospel accounts. Although, He did clearly call Himself “the Lord of the Sabbath” in Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28, and Luke 6:5, reminding the Pharisees that He had authority to make decisions which contradicted their understanding of worship on the Sabbath. We do know that after His Resurrection, He remained on Earth teaching His Apostles for 40 days. John concludes His Gospel in 21:25 with, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Acts begins with Luke writing in 1:3, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” So we see that Jesus had more to teach after He resurrected from the dead. And He continued teaching for 40 days.

And then, something interesting begins to develop as we continue with Acts. We see the Apostles commemorating their worship of God on “the first day of the week.” This would be on a Sunday, according to our present calendar system. In Acts 2:42, we read, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The term “breaking of bread” was a Eucharistic term, according to St. Paul and also the early Church, and thus it was a liturgical term. But what day were they doing this? Acts 20:7 says, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them.” We know it is a liturgical term right from Sacred Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-24, St. Paul is addressing specific questions concerning liturgical practice and disciplines, and he writes: “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” So the term “breaking of bread” is a Eucharistic term. And look what he writes just a few verses later in 11:34: “About the other things, I will give directions when I come.” So we see further credence that there were directives given which specifically dealt with liturgical issues that St. Paul would address in person, not in writing. And then when we look at Acts and see the Apostles “breaking bread” on the “first day of the week,” this literally means they are consecrating the Eucharist (worship to the Father) on a Sunday, not a Saturday.

This ought to settle the issue definitively from a Scriptural basis, even though it is implicit evidence at best, since again, there is no clear dogmatic teaching regarding this. We only see that the shift has in fact happened. And so we are on good ground when we argue that Our Lord most likely taught this to the Apostles during those 40 days, and St. Paul most likely discussed it in person with the Corinthians. But Sabbatarians do not trust in the oral teachings of the Apostles that were then transmitted to their successors and inherited by the early Church. Even though St. Paul clearly taught that his oral teachings were just as much the Word of God as his written teachings were. “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). This is the problem of beginning with the presupposition of Private Interpretation and Sola Scriptura. You end up muddled in heresy, and holding to Old Covenant laws which are now obsolete, and thus not rendering to God the worship He prefers and is owed by His creatures. Hebrews 8:13 teaches: “He says, "A new covenant, " He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

In fact, we have a very powerful passage in Jeremiah 31:31-34 in which God clearly says that He will make a new covenant, different from the one He established with the Jews after they left Egypt, which references the Commandments since it specifies “after they left Egypt.” Jeremiah teaches: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Furthermore, St. Paul writes in Colossians 2:16, “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.” Interesting that he references the Sabbath here, considering the Sabbatarians base their entire theology on attacking the Catholic Church and calling her “the antichrist” for instituting the day of worship on the Lord’s Day, the day of the Resurrection. If we are not supposed to pass judgment on others in regard to the Sabbath, then why is it the Sabbatarians who pass judgment on Christians precisely on this issue? Perhaps they ought to take up their issue with St. Paul.

We also see that by the time St. John wrote the Apocalypse near the end of the 1st century, he refers to Sunday as the Lord’s Day. “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day,” he writes in Apocalypse 1:10. This also explains why the Catholic Church traditionally names the Third Commandment as, “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.” Even though the entire Old Covenant system of law became obsolete once Christ initiated the New Covenant, the Church had the prerogative to determine what she felt was good, edifying, and sanctifying to keep from the Old Covenant. She chose to keep instilling the Commandments as revealed in Exodus 20, however with the provision being that the day we now keep holy is the Lord’s Day, which is Sunday; not the Sabbath Day, which is Saturday. She determined this was good to carry over into the New Covenant. So the Commandment as delivered to Moses is still in force. it is just no longer commemorated on Saturday. It is now celebrated on Sunday.

But alas, the Sabbatarian will cry out, “Who does the Church think she is to determine such a thing?” Well, the answer is very plain. It is not who she thinks she is, but rather it is accepting who she actually is. She is the Bride of Christ, and she is the “pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). In fact, to really see her authority in play, check out Acts 15.

In Acts 15, we have the Council of Jerusalem. The big question of the day is what to do with Gentile converts to the Christian Religion. Should they be circumcised or not? Now, pertinent to our topic at hand regarding Saturday or Sunday for the day of worship, here is an interesting dilemma that the primitive Church had to face. They knew that God had established an “everlasting covenant” with Abraham regarding His people, and that the sign of this “everlasting covenant” was to be circumcision. There was not one statement anywhere in the entire Old Testament that even hinted that circumcision would cease one day as the sign of this covenant, much less that it would be replaced by a Sacrament known as Baptism. You will not find one passage anywhere in the Old Testament to give you this prediction.

Here is what God literally said to Abraham in Genesis 17:7-10: “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you… As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.” So in Genesis 17, we see that God establishes an “everlasting covenant,” and commands that they keep it, and says the sign of this covenant is circumcision. Now, here we are in the New Covenant, and Gentile converts are pouring into the Christian faith, and people are asking the Apostles if they need to be circumcised. And what does St. Peter decree? Circumcision will no longer be needed for entrance into the household of faith. It is truly an amazing moment, and one which changes everything and will stand the test of time. To this very day, the Church has never required circumcision of its members or converts, even though it was said to be the sign of an “everlasting covenant.” So what took its place in the New Covenant? The Sacrament of Baptism.

Why is this point so important? For two reasons. One, Sabbatarians quote passages like Isaiah 66:23 to argue that the Saturday preference for worship is supposed to be an everlasting one. The passage states: “From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.” Or Leviticus 24:8 which says, “Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever.” And yet, we see with Genesis 17 and circumcision, and this sign is said to be “everlasting,” but in the New Covenant, the sign itself becomes obsolete, and it is fulfilled by Baptism, which keeps the promise alive. This is reinforced by the fact that, after the Jerusalem Council, St. Paul goes on to enforce that anyone who demands circumcision is necessary for entrance into the Church and salvation is a heretic. And now here, we see the Sabbath day (Saturday) is said to be a sign of the covenant which is “forever.” And yet, in the New Covenant, the sign itself becomes obsolete, and it is fulfilled by the Lord’s Day (Sunday), which keeps the promise alive. And this is reinforced in the Acts of the Apostles, as referenced above, where we see the Christians “breaking the bread” (offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Eucharist) on the “first day of the week” (Sunday).

Secondly, the point is important because it establishes the authority of the Catholic Church to make such a binding decision. St. Peter makes a binding decree, and if one contradicts it, they are considered anathema. He makes this decree with zero support to back him up from the Old Testament. Of course, St. Peter had never heard or dreamed of an idea called Sola Scriptura, which would be invented centuries after the Apostles. He has the authority to do this because Our Lord had said to him in Matthew 16, “Whatever you bind on Earth is bound in Heaven.” And so St. Peter bound the Church to this decision, and it has never changed in over two millennia since. So too, when St. Peter and the Apostles orally taught (via Sacred Tradition) that the command to worship God is now to be commemorated on the “Lord’s Day” or the “Eighth Day” or the “First Day of the Week,” this command will likewise be bound in Heaven and will stand the test of time. And if any so-called believer contradicts it through man made opinion, they too will be anathema. There is still a sign attached to the covenant promise of belonging to the household of faith; it is just no longer circumcision, but rather it is now Baptism. And likewise, there is still a sign attached to the covenant promise of worshipping God on a sanctified and specified day of the week; it is just no longer Saturday, but rather it is now Sunday. Yes, that is the extent and power and authority that belongs to Jesus, to His Apostles and their successors, and to the New Covenant.

Now, let us look to the testimony of Sacred Tradition, which is inherited by the Church and referred by the early Church Fathers frequently in their own writings. Notice, too, in the reference from St. Ignatius of Antioch, he makes the same point I presented earlier, which is the theological reason for why Sunday was chosen over Saturday. And also notice from St. Justin Martyr, he specifically says that this teaching was taught personally by Jesus to His Apostles after His Resurrection, and thus they then handed it to their successors as well.

The Didache, 70 AD: “But every Lord’s day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.”

The Epistle of Barnabas, on the false and true Sabbath, 74 AD: Further, He says to them, “Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure.” Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, 110 AD: If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things 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—whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master… During the Sabbath He continued under the earth in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathea had laid Him. At the dawning of the Lord’s day He arose from the dead, according to what was spoken by Himself, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man also be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord’s Day contains the resurrection.

St. Justin Martyr, 155 AD: We bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen… 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 Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

St. Cyprian, 270 AD: For because the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, was to be that on which the Lord should rise again, and should quicken us, and give us circumcision of the spirit, the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, and the Lord’s day, went before in the figure; which figure ceased when by and by the truth came, and spiritual circumcision was given to us.

Council of Laodicea, 360 AD: Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.

St. Augustine, 400 AD: So, when you ask why a Christian does not keep the Sabbath, if Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, my reply is, that a Christian does not keep the Sabbath precisely because what was prefigured in the Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ. For we have our Sabbath in Him who said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls”… the reason being, that the Lord might rather in His own Passion declare the significance of that day, as He had come also to declare the mystery of the day now known as the Lord’s day, the eighth namely, which is also the first of the week.

Let us examine in her own words what the Magisterium has taught us on this issue, since the Popes and Bishops of the Catholic Church alone possess valid and licit unbroken succession all the way back to St. Peter and the Apostles. This is helpful specifically so we know how to honor this sacred command and teaching, and to utilize it to give glory to God and grow in holiness.

In the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Church teaches: This Commandment of the Law rightly and in due order prescribes the external worship which we owe to God; for it is, as it were, a consequence of the preceding Commandment. For if we sincerely and devoutly worship God, guided by the faith and hope we have in Him, we cannot but honour Him with external worship and thanksgiving. Now since we cannot easily discharge these duties while occupied in worldly affairs, a certain fixed time has been set aside so that it may be conveniently performed.

The worship of God and the practice of religion, which it comprises, have the natural law for their basis. Nature prompts us to give some time to the worship of God. In the Scriptures keeping holy the Sabbath means a cessation from bodily labor and from business… the Sabbath is a day sacred to religion, set apart for works of piety and devotion. We sanctify the Sabbath fully and perfectly, therefore, when we offer to God works of piety and religion.

The true and proper meaning, therefore, of this Commandment tends to this, that we take special care to set apart some fixed time, when, disengaged from bodily labor and worldly affairs, we may devote our whole being, soul and body, to the religious veneration of God. These words teach us, in the first place, to avoid whatever may interfere with the worship of God. Hence it is not difficult to perceive that all servile works are forbidden, not because they are improper or evil in themselves, but because they withdraw the attention from the worship of God, which is the great end of the Commandment. The faithful should be still more careful to avoid sin, which not only withdraws the mind from the contemplation of divine things, but entirely alienates us from the love of God.

The pastor should also not omit carefully to teach what works and actions Christians should perform on festival days. These are: to go to church, and there, with heartfelt piety and devotion, to assist at the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; and to approach frequently the Sacraments of the Church, instituted for our salvation in order to obtain a remedy for the wounds of the soul.

The faithful should also listen with attention and reverence to sermons. Nothing is more intolerable, nothing more unworthy than to despise the words of Christ, or hear them with indifference. Likewise the faithful should give themselves to frequent prayer and the praises of God; and an object of their special attention should be to learn those things which pertain to a Christian life, and to practice with care the duties of piety, such as giving alms to the poor and needy, visiting the sick, and administering consolation to the sorrowful and afflicted.

Those who altogether neglect its fulfilment resist God and His Church; they heed not God’s command, and are enemies of Him and His holy laws, of which the easiness of the command is itself a proof. We should, it is true, be prepared to undergo the severest labor for the sake of God; but in this Commandment He imposes on us no labor; He only commands us to rest and disengage ourselves from worldly cares on those days which are to be kept holy. To refuse obedience to this Commandment is, therefore, a proof of extreme boldness; and the punishments with which its infraction has been visited by God, should be a warning to us.

This excerpt is taken from the holy and reputable Catechism of Pope St. Pius X:

Q. What act of worship is commanded us on festivals?

A. We are commanded to assist devoutly at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Q. With what other good works does a good Christian sanctify festivals?

A. A good Christian sanctifies festivals: (1) By attending Christian Doctrine, sermons, and the Divine Office; (2) By frequently and devoutly receiving the sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Eucharist; (3) By the practice of prayer and works of Christian charity.

Q. What does the Third Commandment forbid?

A. The Third Commandment forbids servile works and any other works that hinder the worship of God.

Q. What servile works are forbidden on festivals?

A. The servile works forbidden on festivals are those works called manual, that is, those material works in which the body has more part than the mind, such, for instance, as are ordinarily done by servants, labourers, and artisans.

To conclude about the important of observing this teaching correctly, I appeal finally to the approved Marian Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette in 1846, appeared as a weeping woman to two children, Melanie and Maximin. In this account, we learn that her tears were caused in part by a widespread disregard for practicing the Third Commandment.

Mélanie could look at the face of the Lady, but her radiance was too much for Maximin, although he could hear her words. Both remarked that she was in tears the whole time she spoke to them. She told them that she was no longer able to restrain the hand of her Son, because of people working on Sundays and because of widespread blasphemy.

Presently she again spoke to both, saying that if the people were converted, the fields would produce self-sown potatoes and the stones would become wheat. She then asked a significant question: “Do you say your prayers well, my children?” They replied that they hardly prayed, and she told them they should say at least their morning and night prayers, before continuing: “Only a few rather old women go to Mass in the summer. Everyone else works every Sunday all summer long. And in the winter, when they don’t know what else to do, they go to Mass only to scoff at religion. During Lent, they go to the butcher shops like dogs.”

Thus, we see these conclusions based on this Fact Check. Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, Magisterial teaching, and Marian apparitions. All four of these boxes check off entirely for the position of Catholic Christianity. All four of these boxes offer no support whatsoever to the Sabbatarian position. May they repent of their error and come home to the only true Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone asks, “Why don’t Christians worship on Saturday?,” it is for the same reason we are no longer required to be circumcised to be in the household of faith. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We love you. Save souls. Amen.