On April 4th, 2024, Simone Rizkallah wrote an article for Catholic Answers, wherein after having visited Israel, she explains her own reasons behind the Sabbath. Curated and supported by pope John Paul II, she explains why we should as individuals, communities, families, within politics, and society as a whole, reclaim and rediscover Sunday rest. But what does the Bible say about Sunday rest, and should we implement it in our society and culture? Does this align to God’s word? Let’s find out.
She said ——-
“On a recent trip to Israel, I had the opportunity to celebrate Shabbat dinner with some fellow Catholics in the home of an Orthodox Jewish family—a family who, by and large, don’t socialize with Christians. For the other Catholics on this trip (sponsored by the Philos Project), this was their first experience of a Sabbath dinner, where “exotic” rituals are attached to the blessing and consumption of the traditional wine, the challah bread, and the meal.
The experience for me was not unfamiliar, as I have celebrated what certain Catholics call a “Lord’s Day Dinner.” It is, in essence, a Christianized version of a Shabbat dinner. Instead of celebrating on Friday evening, the beginning of the Sabbath for Jews, it takes place on Saturday evening, which is when Sunday would have begun in biblical times. This is why Saturday evening vigil masses “count” for the Sunday liturgical obligation.
In Jerusalem, once the Sabbath begins, things shut down. I wasn’t even able to turn the heater off in my hotel room; it’s not permitted. The restaurants and gift shops are closed, and there are barely any cars out on the streets because driving is prohibited on the Sabbath. There’s even such a thing as a Sabbath elevator, which lets its religious riders avoid pressing any elevator buttons. This seemingly strange prohibition comes from Exodus 35:3: “Thou shalt not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.” Strictly observant Jews consider modern-day electricity “kindling a fire,” which means they forbid operating any electronic device—although they will allow for getting on an elevator that happens to be stopping at every floor, including their own.
“Kindling a fire” is only one of thirty-nine categories of activities (called Melakhot) that Orthodox Jews must avoid. Others include writing, carrying, selling, buying, washing, sewing, cooking, building, and using the telephone. In short, God rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:1-3), which is to say he ceased from creating anything new, and Orthodox Jews seek through their laws to imitate God in this all-encompassing divine rest. For most Christians, this is taking holiness to the extreme.”
(And notice what she says here) “It’s true that Christians no longer observe the Sabbath on Saturday; rather, we celebrate the Lord’s Day on Sunday. As the Catechism notes: “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” (2175).
But what if American Catholics started taking the the Lord’s Day as seriously as Orthodox Jews take their Sabbath? It’s a question Pope John Paul II posed to the entire church in his 1998 apostolic letter on the Lord’s Day, Dies Domini. Spending the Sabbath in Jerusalem brought it to my mind once again.
By “as seriously,” I don’t mean following the same exact rules such as the thirty-nine Melakhot. But I do mean living the Third Commandment—“keep holy the Sabbath”—more intentionally than just squeezing in the most convenient Mass time to fit your schedule. Mass is only one hour. What about the day?
The Eucharist is, of course, the “heart of Sunday” (Dies Domini, ch. 3), and Sunday is “the very heart of the Christian life” (para. 7). If Christians can regain Sunday beyond “just” the mass, we can regain ourselves, the culture, and the public square. John Paul II concludes his letter saying just as much: it will not fail to have a positive influence on civil society as a whole. ….
…But then, as the story goes, work became not primarily an expression of man’s dignity and creativity, but first toilsome and then an idol—something of an addiction, an obsession, and therefore a condition for not freedom, but slavery. Work, which was a kind of participation in the worship of God, became a kind of god. Because God was forgotten, man himself was also forgotten. The meaning of both work and man was lost.
This is where we find ourselves today. There is a reason John Paul II called for a “New Evangelization.” There is a reason “rediscovering Sunday” is an essential part of getting to know God and ourselves once again. If enough Christians reclaim the Lord’s Day, this will be enough to transform culture for the better, which the American Church lately just cannot seem to do.
It will also affect politics. As Father Neuhaus observed, religion is the root of culture, culture the root of politics. We have our attention and priorities backwards, and then we wonder “what’s wrong with the world.”
You may be wondering how keeping a proper Lord’s Day is going to alleviate the most dramatic of social ills. But all social and cultural problems, in some way or another, are rooted in a lack of human dignity. The Catechism candidly expresses that the Sabbath Day is “a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money” (2712).
The decision to rest is also a protection against an endless cycle of pressure, school, work, motion, and inevitable burnout. We might not need liberation from the physical bondage of the Egyptians (see Exod. 6:6) or their false gods, as the Israelites did, but we have our own idols that keep us in spiritual bondage.
The Sabbath is not just about rest; it’s about the sort of rest that ushers in God’s presence and his tangible peace. To cease from our labors, no matter what, and to sacrifice banal amusement and even other good but unnecessary activities is to participate in a truth that is little understood or experienced in modern life: unconditional and unmerited love is real….
There are many other ways to make Sunday different. I know families who do a Sunday brunch after Mass, pray vespers, go on hikes, or play music together. I’ve always appreciated the tradition of family members sharing the ways in which God particularly blessed them in the previous week. You can also pray this Litany or this biblical Examen based on leisure as a help in growing in the capacity to be at rest.
Whatever you or your family decide on how you will reclaim the day, John Paul is clear: although “sharing in the Eucharist is the heart of Sunday . . . the duty to keep Sunday holy cannot be reduced to this” (Dies Domini 52).”
Looking at this article from the lens and perspective of the Bible, and as Christians, who believe in God’s inspired words, we know we cannot rely upon tradition, popes, catechisms, or Catholic council canons. God’s word is our standard and sole authority. As the writer quoted from dies domini (“apostalic” letter written by pope John II) as the source and foundation used to uplift Sunday as a solution to solve societal “dramatic ills”, as well as the eucharist being the “heart of Sunday”, and Catholic mass. However, the Bible never uplifts the first day of the week as a holy day at all, the Eucharist as being the heart of Sunday, mass, or popes and heads of the church for that matter. In fact, in regards to Sunday, it’s the opposite, and called a common working day in the Bible.
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
God Himself worked on the first day of the week. Let that sink in. Sunday is nothing more than a common working day, but yet, from tradition and the authority of a church catechism, this teaching and leaven has worked and secretly embedded its way to the very heart of institutional Christianity.
You may be wondering to yourself, “why does it matter? So what if one chooses to rest on Sunday instead of Saturday, and why can’t they have the choice on the matter?” Which is a great question. The simple answer is that it’s about worship. The 4th commandment, (not the 3rd as Catholics claim, see Exodus 20:1-17) is the Seventh-day Sabbath that points back to our Creator who made ALL things in six days at creation week. In fact, it even says the same in the commandment itself: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
And in Revelation 14:6, 7 “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and WORSHIP HIM that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
Now as we just read, this verse points us directly back to the Sabbath and creation. The Seventh-day Sabbath identifies Who it is we actually worship. The true Creator of the heaven, the earth, the sea, the waters, and all things. This is why it is so much more that just “picking a day to worship.” In order to worship as God has ordained, and to worship God Himself, we want to worship and desire to worship as He instructs in His word. We also understand that Satan always has counterfeits to what is true, and wants worship for himself, as he desires to be like God.
Isaiah 14:12-14 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
We also know that Satan craves worship because he stated himself when tempting Jesus:
Matthew 4:8-10 “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
So if God has the seventh day as the Sabbath, and as the 4th commandment of the Moral Law of His Government in heaven and earth that reveals who is the true Creator, does Satan have a day also that is being exalted in its place? Does Satan uplift a day to replace and substitute this holy, sanctified day?
Yes, Sunday, the day of the sun. While rest is good and is commanded by God in the seventh day sabbath, we should not implement Sunday for a day of rest into our society and culture. If we are to return to God and His word, it must be in truth. If as protestants, and to be fair and honest, we can only admit that Sunday being a day of rest only comes and originates from the Roman Catholic Church, and no where else. If we deny this, we deny history itself. But will we be true protestants, we will truly protest against that which is error? Let us be sentinels for God today, and lift the banner of Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
May God bless you.
Reach me at slacaustin@gmail.com
Sunday Laws Are Coming 