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B y t h e B o o k
The Sabbath: Saturday or Sunday
By Tim Staples
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This Rock
Volume 17, Number 5
 May-June 2006 
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Members of various Christian and quasi-Christian sects believe the Saturday Sabbath to be obligatory for all believers in Christ. But according to the New Testament, the Sabbath that Christians are bound to keep cannot be the Jewish Sabbath of the Old Covenant: Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are only a shadow [Greek: skia] of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (Col. 2:16–17) It is interesting to note that the inspired author of Hebrews uses the same Greek word (skia, or "shadow") for the Old Covenant sacrifices that are no longer binding on Christians either:For since the law has but a shadow [skian] of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. (Heb. 10:1) All Christians agree that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were "shadows" of the one and true sacrifice of Christ. But many do not make a similar connection and see that the Old Covenant Sabbath is also a shadow of its true fulfillment in the New Covenant.
But does this mean that the third commandment itself is a mere shadow? No. The Church teaches, in agreement with our Lord and Scripture, that we must keep the Ten Commandments (Matt. 19:17; 1 Cor. 7:19).Since they express man’s fundamental duties toward God and toward his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart. (CCC 2072) Thus, we must keep holy the Sabbath in order to make it to heaven. But since Scripture also tells us that the Jewish Sabbath is not binding, we need to ask: What is it about the Sabbath that is immutable, and what is it that is changeable?
A Shadow of Good Things to Come
When we examine Colossians 2:16–17, we discover Paul using the same division of "festivals" (yearly holy days), "new moons" (monthly holy days) and "Sabbaths" (the Saturday obligation) the Old Testament uses when referencing the Jewish holy days and Saturday Sabbath. For example:And they shall stand every morning, thanking and praising the Lord, and likewise at evening, and whenever burnt offerings are offered to the Lord on sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them, continually before the Lord. (1 Chr. 23:30–31; cf. 2 Chr. 2:4; 8:12–13; 31:3) Clearly, along with the yearly and monthly holydays, the Saturday Sabbath is included in what Paul calls a mere "shadow." But Paul is not saying—and does not say—that Christians do not have to keep any Sabbath. If we look at the context, we see that Paul was dealing with Judaizers who were telling Gentile Christians they had to be circumcised and keep the Old Covenant law in order to be saved. Paul was speaking specifically of the Jewish Sabbath.
A New Sabbath
The Catholic Church teaches, as does Scripture, that Christians celebrate the Sabbath but on "another day":For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." And again in this place he said, "They shall never enter my rest." Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day. . . . For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later of another day. So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. (Heb. 4:4–7, 8–9) This text seems to indicate that the Jewish "seventh day" has been superceded or fulfilled in "another day," which is a new "sabbath rest for the people of God." The inspired author then tells us that Christ and the Church are the fulfillment of all that was merely "shadow" in the Old Covenant:Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way . . . through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near . . . with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water . . . not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. . . . For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. (Heb. 10:19–22, 25–26) As Christians, we "enter the sanctuary" through faith and baptism and the Eucharist, but the inspired author also emphasizes meeting together in order to experience this life of the New Covenant. In fact, this most grave and deliberate sin spoken of in verse 26 may well refer to "neglecting to meet together" in verse 25. Remember, the inspired author spends this entire epistle speaking to those who were being tempted to leave the Church in order to be saved through the Old Covenant priesthood and temple sacrifices that in reality had no power to save. The important point for us to see now is the essential nature of our "meeting together" as Christians. This is not an option according to Hebrews.
What Day of the Week Is It?
If we have a New Covenant, a new sanctuary and a new Sabbath, what day is it? We know from our Tradition the answer is Sunday. And we see this confirmed in multiple New Testament texts. When Paul was in Troas, where he says "we stayed for seven days," he specifically singles out Sunday as the day of "the breaking of bread": "On the first day of the week . . . we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7).
In Acts 2:46, we read:And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts. The apostles and their companions attended the temple, but "the breaking of bread" occurred in the house "churches" of Christians. There were no church buildings in the first century, yet Christians had already designated homes for "church" gatherings where the focal point was "the breaking of bread."For, in the first place, when you assemble as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. . . . When you meet together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God. . . . 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. (1 Corinthians 11:18–23) The Eighth Day: Going Deeper
The Sabbath was given to man in the context of the consummation of the six days of creation. After the sixth day, man was then commanded to "rest" as God "rested." It is not that God was tired—he’s God! The Sabbath was an opportunity for man not only to rest from the toil of labor but to enter into God’s rest and peace. "The Lord’s Day," or the New Covenant Sabbath, is also given in the context of the consummation of creation. But it is a new creation and a New Covenant that has fulfilled what the Old Covenant shadowed.
The Church and the Fathers of the Church refer to this day of both the consummation of the Old and establishment of the New as "the eighth day." Christ came to enable us to realize what we could not through the Old Testament. In Christ and through the Eucharist—his flesh (Heb. 10:20)—the Christian truly "ceases from his labors as God did from his" (Heb. 4:10).
The earliest Christian writings we have present Christ’s Resurrection on what they called the "eighth day":Finally [God] says to them: "I cannot bear your new moons and Sabbaths." You see what he means: It is not the present Sabbaths that are acceptable to me but the one that I have made: on that Sabbath day, which is the beginning of another world. This is why we spend the eighth day in celebration, the day on which Jesus both arose from the dead and, after appearing again, ascended into heaven. (Epistle of Barnabas 15) St. Ignatius of Antioch taught:And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the Resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, "To the end, for the eighth day" on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ. (Letter to the Magnesians 9) Sunday, for Catholics, is both "the first day" and the Sabbath rest of the new creation. It is both the day Christ entered into his rest and the day our justification was secured, when we could become a new creation in Christ and enter into the rest and peace of Christ. The first creation and Sabbath comprised seven days. The new creation and Sabbath rest were consummated in one day. Sunday is, then, the day that we enter into the rest of God through our resurrected Lord. We keep this, "the Lord’s Day," holy—every "eighth day."
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