Sunday Is Not the Sabbath

*You are in the Catholic forum*

If we believe we have to ‘honor the Sabbath day,’ why aren’t Catholics obliged to attend Mass on Saturday instead of Sunday?​

One of the most appealing teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is their insistence that Christians must obey the Ten Commandments . . . all ten of them. They rightly expose the errant thinking among many Protestant Christian sects that claims, “We don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments for salvation anymore.”

Of course, Jesus has a reminder for us:

And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” And [Jesus] said to him . . . “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:16-17).

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Given our agreement on this point, the Seventh-day Adventist commonly asks: “If you believe we have to keep the Fourth (our Third) Commandment, why aren’t Catholics obliged to attend Mass on Saturdays instead of Sunday?”

We can draw our first source from the the Catechism, which declares,

Since they express man’s fundamental duties towards God and towards 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 (2072).

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Thus, the Third Commandment is “fundamentally immutable” because it’s one of the Ten Commandments, which Jesus said we must follow to attain everlasting life. However, the Catholic Church teaches the particular day we celebrate in keeping the Third Commandment to be ceremonial, or an accidental component of the law that is changeable. Here’s how the Catechism puts it:

Continued below.

DialecticSkeptic said:

My question was inspired by the OP, which followed from having read the OP. This doesn't feel like a very friendly room to non-Catholics, even though it is purportedly open to non-Catholic guests.

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It is welcoming. What is it about the op that prompted the question? I thought it was quite clear. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. The Fullfillment of the Law. The OP discusses the sabbath and the debates surrounding when the sabbath should be celebrated. There was no discussion about what you are asking concerning the sabbath. Seems like a completely different topic about the sabbath than what the op is discussing. Mostly about what Seventh Day Adventists object to…