Romans 14, col 2
SUNDAY WORSHIP
“The Commandments speak of remembering the Sabbath day, and keeping it holy (Gen. 2, 3; Exod. 20, 8). The Sabbath is Saturday, so why do Catholics worship publicly on the first day of the week, that is, Sunday?”
This is a question normally posed by those - such as the Seventh-Day Adventists - who regard Sunday worship as a mark of the Apostate Church of the Beast.
Our Lord Jesus Christ declared that He was Lord of the Sabbath and that its observance was at His disposal: St. Matt. 12, 1-8; St. Mark 2, 24-26; St. Luke 6, 5; St. John 5, 10-11. As a consequence, the early Church, in order to distinguish itself from the worship of the Synagogue, felt itself free to depart from Sabbath worship and worship God on an alternate day of the week. This is evident from the words of St. Paul to the Colossians: “Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (2, 16-17).
If Christ Himself had the power to “dispose” of the Sabbath, so too His Church which is His Body. The power of the Church to make such a change is specifically found in Our Lord’s words to St. Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (St. Matt. 16, 19).
From the outset of the Church’s history Christians would replace the Sabbath day with a new day of public worship in commemoration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead - the Day of the Lord. This day is Sunday, the first day of the week:
“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb” (St. Luke 24, 1-2);
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb” (St. John 20, 1).
The official “birthday” of the Church, Pentecost Sunday, also fell on the first day of the week: Acts 2, 1.
The public worship of the Mass was celebrated by the early Christians on Sunday:
“On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread…” (Acts 20, 7).
Collections in support of the Church were gathered on Sunday:
“On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come” (1 Cor. 16, 2).
St. John received his Revelation on Sunday:
“I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution…was on the island called Patmos…I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day…” (Rev. 1, 9-10).
It is important to note that in changing the Sabbath law the Church did not make a change in the divine law obliging men to worship God - a law which is irrevocable - but merely a change in the day on which it was to be offered, that is a change in the positive ceremonial law. All positive laws, including those of divine institution, can be altered or revoked according to changes in time, circumstance or place.
The Fathers:
Sunday worship has always been the worship of the Church:
The Didache (C. 90-150 A.D.):
“On the Lord’s Day of the Lord gather together, break bread and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure…”
St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Magnesians (110 A.D.):
“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.”
St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, C. 67 (C. 155 A.D.):
“We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day (after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day) when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.”
theworkofgod.org/Library/Apologtc/R_Haddad/Course/Book2A.htm#SUNDAY
