The Faith of Millions:
By John A. O’Brien. Printed 1958. Chapter 6. Page 543.
By John A. O’Brien. Printed 1958. Chapter 6. Page 543.
The word “Sabbath” means rest, and is Saturday, the seventh day of the week.
Why then do Christians observe Sunday instead of the day mentioned in the Bible? In order to make clear to the Jews that they are no longer under the Old Law of Moses, which it requirements of circumcision, abstinence from certain meets and the scrupulous observance of the Jewish sacrifice on the Sabbath, but under the New Law of Christ, the infant Church changed the day to be kept holy from Saturday to Sunday.
But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom, even though it rest upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away – like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.
Why then do Christians observe Sunday instead of the day mentioned in the Bible? In order to make clear to the Jews that they are no longer under the Old Law of Moses, which it requirements of circumcision, abstinence from certain meets and the scrupulous observance of the Jewish sacrifice on the Sabbath, but under the New Law of Christ, the infant Church changed the day to be kept holy from Saturday to Sunday.
But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom, even though it rest upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away – like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.
