Sabbath
The Sabbath is the day of rest willed by God for men within a week of work. It is a binding commandment inscribed in the Decalogue ([1]-[2]). It is inspired by the fact that God, in the Creation, worked for six days and rested (Sabbath = to cease and Sheba = seven) from His activity on the seventh day.[3]
In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"
- If possible, find a passage that forbids the physician to heal a sick person, a Levite to attend to the altar, a priest to listen to a faithful person, and only because it is the Sabbath.[4]
- “Work a honest work, and on the seventh day dedicate it to the Lord and your spirit.” This is what the commandment of Sabbath rest says ([5]-[6]). It is a salutary commandment, whether in the physical order, the moral order, or the spiritual.[7]
- Jesus master of the Sabbath ([8]-[9]) – In the plain of Ashkelon. The apostolic group, on its way to the Philistine country, was rejected everywhere. Hunger overcomes the Apostles.[10]
- Everything in its time, everything in its place. The market is not held on the Sabbath, and commerce is not conducted in the synagogues, and neither is work done at night.[11]
- I (Judas) reply to you that as great as the law of Sabbath rest is, the precept of love is even greater. I am not obliged to justify myself in your eyes, but I do so to teach you mercy, humility, and the great truth that before a holy necessity one must know how to apply the law with flexibility of spirit. Our history has examples of this necessity.[12]
In the fundamental Christian texts
In the Bible
The Sabbath is a binding commandment inscribed in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:8-11 - Deuteronomy 5:12-15). It is inspired by the fact that God, in the Creation, worked for six days and rested (Sabbath = to cease and Sheba = seven) from His activity on the seventh day[13]. Disobedience of the Sabbath was punishable by death[14]. Over time, the legislation concerning the Sabbath became more complex until reaching the rigorism that Jesus denounces. Master of the Sabbath who "was made for man, not man for the Sabbath"[15], Jesus scandalized the proponents of formalism by his concern to show the foundation of the Sabbath: a gift from God to men so that they remember Him and an opportunity to manifest His compassion through acts of generosity.[16]
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church
It is commented under the title of the third commandment of the Decalogue[17]:
- The day of the Sabbath[18]
- The Lord’s Day.[19]
- The Sunday Eucharist (Sunday Mass).[20]
- The day of Grace and cessation of work.[21]