New Evangelizers Post: The 10 Commandments in the Modern World Part 3 – Keep Holy the Sabbath

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

We Christians do not celebrate the Sabbath per se.  The original Sabbath, still observed by our Jewish brothers and sisters, is Saturday, the day God rested from creation.  For Christians, the Sabbath has been replaced by “The Lord’s Day,” which is the day we remember Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead: Sunday.  In fact, every Sunday is holy because it is a “mini-Easter.”  So the 3rd Commandment applies to us in terms of keeping holy the Lord’s Day.

I remember back in college eavesdropping on a heated discussion in the computer lab about going to Mass on Sunday.  One student vigorously shouted, “The commandment says ‘Keep Holy Sabbath,’ not ‘Go to Mass on Sunday.’”  This person seemed particularly proud of themselves for making such an astute scholarly observation.  Of course the follow up question to that should be: “How did the early Christians understand what it meant to keep holy the Lord’s Day?”

The answer, of course, is go to mass.  In fact, to intentionally skip the Lord’s Day mass has always been understood to be a mortal sin.

Sometimes someone will say to me in class, “I don’t go to Church, but I love God.”  My response is always the same: “No you don’t.”

Judgmental of me?  Perhaps.  But let us look at the facts.

You can read the entire article here.