Sabbath

As born again in Christ we keep God's ongoing spiritual Sabbath, not Israel's physical Sabbath of the old Law given by Moses. Every day is to be lived holy dying for Christ. The commandments of Jesus can be found in faith & works. Anyone who thinks we are still under old testament Sabbath needs to follow Ridiculous Old Testament Laws.

As Catholics we are obliged to go to Church on Sundays, and not do work that impedes this. For serious unavoidable reasons work is allowed. It is recommended to not do any physical over-work you do not wish to do, to allow your body rest and for God to work on you.

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.”

CCC 2180

“On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.”

CCC 2185

“On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God. The joy proper to the Lord’s Day, or the appropriate relaxation of mind and body. Family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation of Sunday rest.”

CCC 2186

“Christians should seek to ensure that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health.”

CCC 2187

“Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.”

Old covenant Sabbath was for Israel, not all nations, and is lifted by Jesus in salvation.

Exodus 31:16
16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath.

Deuteronomy 5:15
15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

In the New Testament, with the Gentiles grafted in, it was never commanded that non-Jews need to keep the Sabbath.

Acts 15 (Written to gentiles because of Jews wanting to lay old law on them)
28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Mark 10
19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.”

Romans 14
No day special than another.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.

Colossians 2:16–17
“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

The apostles met on the first day of the week the lords day to break bread, Sunday, not the 7th day Saturday.

Matthew 28:1
“Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.”

John 20:19
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ 26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”

Acts 2:42
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
Acts 20:7
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them.”
1 Corinthians 16:2
“On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up.”

Revelation 1:10
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”

Hebrews 10:24–25

“And let us consider not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another."

With the coming of Jesus both Circumcision and the Sabbath changed from Physical to Spiritual circumcision of the heart and spiritual rest. Meaning ceasing from our works of trying to strive to earn the right for God to grant immortality, because we are resting in the work of Christ. Israel's Sabbath before Jesus was sacrificial to atone for sins, Jesus has done away with that in his new covenant of salvation. The new sunday Lord's day is a celebration of what Christ has done. As a Catholic you are meant to not do work you would rather refrain from, for your well being and to celebrate what God has done for you in mass and worship him. Cooperating with his Grace and works.

“Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God.”
— CCC §2175

There is a difference between Gods spiritual Sabbath rest, and Israel's physical sacrificial Sabbath of work. God entered permanent rest on the seventh day and will not come out of it until he comes back to remake the world in the resurrection. The following passage shows they held Sabbath for 40 years, but not Gods Sabbath spiritual rest. The Sabbath was a burden for them:

Psalm 95
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

Hebrews 4:1-11 tells us we enter GODS spiritual Sabbath Rest, when we enter faith in Christ and no longer trying to earn our salvation by works of the old law.

( If you need help understanding Hebrews 4: https://www.gci.org/articles/entering-gods-rest-a-study-of-hebrews-4/ )

We have the option of not working on the Sabbath if it unburdens us, but the obligation of the Sabbath is nonexistent if it burdens us. We are not made to be slaves to the Sabbath.

Mark 2

27 And Jesus said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Mathew 12

12 So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. (All work is doing good)

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

1 John 5:3

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Matthew 12:8

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

The story of Hagar and Sarah represents the old physical law, and new spiritual law in Christ.

Galatians 4

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Church Fathers on the Sabbath.

Similar to their view regarding circumcision, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, both explain that the Sabbath wasn’t kept by Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, or Melchizedek. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus show how passages such as Ezekiel 20 explain that God established the Sabbath for Israe as a sign, not a binding work of righteousness. These laws were signs to other nations for God's covenant, including mixing clothing fabric, sowing field with two types of seeds, and many other Leviticus laws. They were transformed with Christ.

Ezekiel 20:20

“And keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.”

Exodus 31:13

“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.’”

Exodus 31:13

“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.’”

Didache — c. AD 70–120 (Apostolic manuscript)
Didache 14:1
“But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanks."

Epistle of Barnabas AD 70–130

Barnabas 15:8 “Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead.”

Ignatius of Antioch AD 110 (student of John the Apostle)
“If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living according to the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up through Him and through His death. Let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days.”

Justin Martyr AD 150–155
First Apology 67
“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in the cities or in the country gather together to one place…”
“We all make assembly together on Sunday… because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.”

Justin Martyr

“Sabbaths were instituted on account of the people’s sins, and not for a work of righteousness.”

“God enjoined you to keep the Sabbath, and impose on you other precepts for a sign … on account of your unrighteousness, and that of your fathers. (“Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.”)

Ireneus AD 180 (student of Polycarp, student of John the Apostle)

We learn from the Scripture itself, that God gave circumcision, not as the completer of righteousness, but as a sign, that the race of Abraham might continue recognisable. For it declares: ‘God said to Abraham, Every male among you shall be circumcised; and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, as a token of the covenant between Me and you.’ This same does Ezekiel the prophet say with regard to the Sabbaths: ‘Also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord, that sanctify them.’ And in Exodus, God says to Moses: ‘And ye shall observe My Sabbaths; for it shall be a sign between Me and you for your generations. These things, then, were given for a sign; but the signs were not unsymbolical, that is, neither unmeaning nor to no purpose, inasmuch as they were given by a wise Artist; but the circumcision after the flesh typified that after the Spirit. For ‘we,’ says the apostle, ‘have been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.’ And the prophet declares, ‘Circumcise the hardness of your heart.’ But the Sabbaths taught that we should continue day by day in God’s service.

Tertullian 225 AD

“For the Scriptures point to a Sabbath eternal and a Sabbath temporal. For Isaiah the prophet says, “Your Sabbaths my soul hates,” and in another place he says, “My Sabbaths you have profaned.” Whence we discern that the temporal Sabbath is accounted divine; concerning which He predicts through Isaiah: “And there shall be,” He says, “month after month, and day after day, and Sabbath after Sabbath; and all flesh shall come to adore in Jerusalem, says the Lord;” which we understand to have been fulfilled in the times of Christ, when “all flesh”—that is, every nation—“came to adore in Jerusalem” God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, as was predicted through the prophet: “Behold, proselytes through me shall go unto You.” Thus, therefore, before this temporal Sabbath, there was withal an eternal Sabbath foreshown and foretold; just as before the carnal circumcision there was a spiritual circumcision foreshown.”

Apology 16

“If we devote Sunday to rejoicing, from a far different reason than Sun-worship

Ad Nationes 1.13 — c. AD 197
“because it is a well-known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity.”
you have selected its day… in preference to the preceding day… as the most suitable in the week
Prayer 23
“the day of the Lord’s resurrection”

Augustine letter 55 to Januarius. AD 400

But we are not commanded to observe the day of the Sabbath literally, in resting from bodily labour, as it is observed by the Jews; and even their observance of the rest as prescribed is to be deemed worthy of contempt, except as signifying another, namely, spiritual rest. From this we may reasonably conclude, that all those things which are figuratively set forth in Scripture, are powerful in stimulating that love by which we tend towards rest; since the only figurative or typical precept in the Decalogue is the one in which that rest is commended to us, which is desired everywhere, but is found sure and sacred in God alone.

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Jesus and the Apostles broke Sabbath:

Harvest laws broken:

Exodus 34:21
“Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

Leviticus 23:22
“’When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.’”

Mark 2:23-28
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

Jesus unlawfully healing on the Sabbath:

John 5:9-18

And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’”

John 5:16-18
16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Jesus Is Equal with God
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Paul goes against Sabath and old laws:

ACTS 21

They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. 22 What shall we do?26 The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would END and the offering would be made for each of them.Paul Arrested27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Paul’s Use of His Freedom
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings