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Sunday and Holy Day Mass obligations

By Adam Schwend
Liturgy & Ritual



Q.   I missed Mass on Immaculate Conception due to the weather and feel just awful about it.  I really tried to get to Mass, but it was cancelled and I was worried about the roads, so I didn’t try to find another parish.  Is it really a sin to miss Mass on a Sunday or Holy Day of Obligation if it isn’t possible?

A.   Fear not, gentle reader.  You committed no sin.  Canon Law (particularly canons 1247 and 1248) state that “Those who find it impossible, or impossible without serious inconvenience, to attend Mass in individual instances are morally excused from the observance of the obligation and need not seek a dispensation.”  In fact, I’m in the same boat with you.  I intended to attend Mass at the parish church within walking distance to my house in the evening, but got a call two hours before Mass telling me Mass was cancelled.  As the ice and snow piled up on my car, and more and more parishes were cancelling Masses, it became impossible to attend Mass safely.  So, my wife and I took the suggestion of Canon 1248 §2, which says that if, for a grave reason (such as it being too dangerous, your livelihood depending on it, or there is no priest available) you can’t attend Mass “it is strongly recommended that the faithful take part in a liturgy of the word if such a liturgy is celebrated…or that they devote themselves to prayer for a suitable time alone, as a family, or, as the occasion permits, in groups of families,” and we prayed Evening Prayer together. 
               
This gives us the opportunity to discuss the whole idea of the “obligation” to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.  For some reason, after the Second Vatican Council, some folks got the idea that it was no longer a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sundays or Holy Days.  Well, if you thought was true, I’m sorry to burst your bubble.  Vatican II changed nothing about the obligation to attend Mass.  Some well-meaning folks have said things to me like, “Well, the Vikings were on this Sunday, so I’ll get to Mass sometime this week.”  Although that sort of person is trying to make things right, (well, sort of) attending Mass during the week does not somehow make up for not attending Mass on Sunday.  It’s like having a friend who has a birthday in August and being too self-absorbed to bother with her birthday, so you send her a card in October.  It might be a nice gesture, but no matter what you try to do, you missed her birthday.

We Americans don’t like being told what to do, right?  We are independent thinkers who like to make our own decisions about life.  In government, if we don’t like the decisions that are made, we get rid of the decision-makers and change the rules.  In a structure of secular government, that makes sense.  However, it doesn’t work with the Church.  Why not?  Because the state and the Church have two different reasons for existence.  The duty of the state is to protect physically protect its citizens, and guarantee individual rights.  The duty of the Church, however, is a far more communal one.  Certainly it is to save individual souls, but the Church’s mission on earth is to bring those souls to salvation by shepherding them into relationship with the Trinity, which is most intimately seen in the celebration of Holy Mass.  This duty of the Church to bring us into relationship with one another and with the Trinity is fulfilled by her insistence that we attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.  “God is Love”, St. John tells us.  Indeed, our Catholic faith is one of being in relationship and in love with God and each other, just as the Father, Son, and Spirit are in love and relationship with each other. 

This relationship between us (the Church) and Blessed Trinity, therefore, requires work, obligation, and sacrifice, like any relationship does.  For God’s part, he gave himself.  Knowing that we were in a state of darkness and spiritual ruin, God humbled himself to the state of humanity.  He endured pain, suffering, and a torturous death in order to save our souls.  He invites us, as one in relationship with him, to take part in the glory of his resurrection by attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  This is an obligation not because the Church wants to create rules to control us, but because to be Catholic we must be in union with God in Christ, and thus must fulfill our obligation in the relationship.  This is why we are obligated to attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation; because the mission of the Church is guide us, the members of the Church, to union and relationship with the Trinity.

Obligation, then, is not a bad thing.  For example, I love my job.  There are, however, days (like this morning!) that I look outside and see the snow and see the thermometer at eight degrees and want to crawl back into bed and go back to sleep.  However, the obligation I have to the Bishop, the faithful of the Diocese of Sioux City, as well as to my family insists that I wake up, get ready, and venture out into the weather to my office.  In the same way, there are times that we don’t want to go to Mass.  We may be busy, or have company, or be too tired.  However, we have an obligation to our Lord that we must keep if we want to remain in relationship with him.  Neither God nor the Church will force us into relationship with God.  We have the free will to leave the Church and to reject the love that God wants to share with us.  However, if we truly want to be in union with God, Sunday Mass will be the most important part of our week.  Holy Days of Obligation become Holy Days of OPPORTUNITY!  An opportunity to enter into the Divine Love of the Trinity.

Questions for Liturgy and Ritual, as well as comments, can be sent to Adam Schwend at adams@scdiocese.orgor at 1821 Jackson St. Sioux City, IA 51102.