364 JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD ON A SUNDAY

YOUCAT Lesson 364

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

364  Why do Christians replace the Sabbath with Sunday?

Christians replaced the celebration of the Sabbath with the celebration of Sunday because Jesus Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday.  The “Lord’s Day”, however, does include elements of the Sabbath.  [2174-2176, 2190-2191]

The Resurrection Of Christ by Carl Heinrich Bloch. ….. 364

The Christian Sunday has three essential elements: (1) It recalls the creation of the world and communicates the festive splendor of God’s goodness to the passage of time.  (2) It recalls the “eighth day of creation”, when the world was made new in Christ (thus a prayer from the Easter Vigil says: “You have wonderfully created man and even more wonderfully restored him.”).  (3) It includes the theme of rest, not just to sanctify the interruption of work, but to point even now toward man’s eternal rest in God.

“If pagans call it the ‘day of the sun’, we willingly agree, for today the light of the world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his rays.”  St. Jerome (347-419)

“That is the difference between animals and man; the latter has a Sunday outfit, too.”  Martin Luther (1483-1546)

[2174-2176, 2190-2191]

II. THE LORD'S DAY

This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.( Psalm 118:24.)¹⁰³ --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Secomd Edition

The day of the Resurrection: the new creation

2174 Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." (Compare Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1.)¹⁰⁴ Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath,( Compare Mark 16:1; (Matthew 28:1.)¹⁰⁵ it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday: –CCC

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.( St. Justin, I Apol. 67:Patrologia Graeca 6,429 and 432.)¹⁰⁶ –CCC

Sunday - fulfillment of the Sabbath

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(Compare 1 Corinthians 10:11.)¹⁰⁷ –CCC

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. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Magn. 9,1:Sources Chretiennes 10,88.)¹⁰⁸ –CCC

2176 The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship "as a sign of his universal beneficence to all."( St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II,122,4.)¹⁰⁹ Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.

IN BRIEF

2190 The sabbath, which represented the completion of the first creation, has been replaced by Sunday which recalls the new creation inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ. –CCC

2191 The Church celebrates the day of Christ's Resurrection on the "eighth day," Sunday, which is rightly called the Lord's Day (compare Sacrsanctum Concilium 106).