Saturday Mass?

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Hey all. 🙂

I have a Mormon friend who asked a question today that did stump me. Why is it that going to Mass on a Saturday fulfills your Sunday obligation, since Christ rose on a Sunday?

I know the idea of Saturday fulfilling the obligation is right simply because Christ’s Church teaches it 😛 but what is the logic behind this teaching?

Thanks.👍
 
The logic is that in the Jewish calendar, days begin ‘at sundown’. (That is why you will see today, for Jewish holidays, that they start on the sundown of the previous day. The Jewish sabbath starts at sundown on Friday night).

Therefore, at sundown (or, since we have in some places lengthy summer days and short winter days, an agreed upon 4 to 5 p.m. modification to demarcate a ‘sundown’ time all year round) on Saturday, we are ‘starting’ Sunday --and a Mass at that time will thus ‘count’ for Sunday.

But because we are both ‘generous’ and because most non-Jewish days ‘start’ at 12:01 a.m., we also ‘allow’ Sunday to last from 12:01 a.m. to 12 midnight–and thus we can have 9 or even 10 p.m. Mass on a Sunday evening and IT ‘still’ counts.
 
Thanks! Also, that brings to mind the question of the Sabbath. I have heard that it is still on Saturday and that it is really on Sunday. Is the Sabbath still on Saturday as it always was, or is it on a Sunday now? And if the former is true, why does “Keep holy the Sabbath day” apply to Sunday?

PS. I love your sig, Tantum ergo. I am taking my consecration on May 31 (the Visitation) by the method of St. Louis de Montfort. Any prayers would be appreciated!
 
Koopa said:
Thanks! Also, that brings to mind the question of the Sabbath. I have heard that it is still on Saturday and that it is really on Sunday. Is the Sabbath still on Saturday as it always was, or is it on a Sunday now? And if the former is true, why does “Keep holy the Sabbath day” apply to Sunday?
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Actually, Catholics do not keep the Jewish Sabbath. Rather they keep the Lord’s Day on which Christ was resurrected – and for Christians keeping the Lord’s Day replaces keeping the Jewish Sabbath. You can see this in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2175:
Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ: 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.
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Koopa, I will pray for you on your day of consecration. My life has changed immeasurably since I consecrated my life to Jesus through Mary.
 
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