Missing Sunday Mass

The Gravity of Missing Sunday Mass

One

The third commandment is to honor the sabbath, that is, to live Sundays according to the way God designed the human person. Why is it such a big deal?

Although it may be common knowledge to you, a lot of people, a lot of Catholics do not realize that it is a grave evil to miss Mass on Sunday without a good reason or they do not know why. 

The present Catechism makes it plain: 

It says, “The faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, or the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.” (CCC 2181).

But why? Why is it such a big deal to miss mass, to miss a weekly gathering here or there? How could that possibly jeopardize your eternal salvation? Why would God care so much about taking attendance?

Two

Sunday Mass as the “foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice”

The Church teaches that “the Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice” (CCC 2181). 

In other words, the Church teaches that the Christian life is all about a deep intimacy with Jesus Christ in the Church, through the Eucharist.

Did you get that? These are the three most crucial elements of the Christian life: Intimacy with Christ, in the Church, through the Eucharist. And Sunday Mass is where the Church gathers together to unite together in intimacy with Christ through the Eucharist

So if you’re blowing that off, then you are blowing off the Christian life. And if you are dismissive of the Christian life, then your being dismissive about the path instituted by God Himself for us to get to Heaven.

And that is, spiritually speaking, a really big deal.

Three

Justice to God

One of the prerequisites to being a good person – and so being fit for Heaven – is that we strive to be just. But justice is defined as the virtue whereby we give others what we owe them.

Now what do we owe God? What has God given us? 

Everything. Absolutely everything. And the greatest thing He has given us is His Son, Jesus Christ.

Now, believe it or not, Mass is the primary place where we strive to be just to God, by giving Him what we owe Him. Which means we offer up to Him everything He has given us. We give ourselves, our joys and our sufferings and our lives – all of it symbolized by the bread and the wine and even the financial offering which represents our labor and our worldly security.

But we also offer up to God the greatest thing He has given us: we offer up His Son, Jesus Christ.

Mass is therefore the greatest obligation in justice we have. At Mass the Priest says, 

℣. Lift up your hearts.

℟. We lift them up to the Lord.

℣. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

℟. It is right and just.

℣. It is truly right and just, our duty and salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Father most holy, through your beloved Son, Jesus Christ

When we say, at Mass, “it is right and just,” we mean that. This is the most just thing any of us ever do, where we try to make ourselves right with God.

So if you’re not willing to perform the most basic act of justice there is by participating in the Mass offering to God – the God to whom you owe everything – then you are failing in the most basic act of justice there is.

If you’re willing to casually miss Sunday Mass, you are failing in the most basic act of justice there is – justice to God.

And spiritually, if you are living a fundamentally unjust life, that’s a big, big problem. 

Four

Family analogy

Remember that our salvation is based on our relationship with God and with His family, and those relationships demand time. 

Consider this example:

Imagine a wife who says to her husband “Dear, we haven’t seen you for weeks. The kids and I miss you. Could we please schedule a meal for this weekend when the whole family is together? I think it’s important.”

And imagine the husband rolls his eyes, and says, “Fine, fine. If you think it’s that important. When do you want to do it?”

And the wife says, “Well, whenever’s good for you. We could have dinner Saturday night. We could have an early breakfast on Sunday at 7:30, or at 9:00, or brunch at 10:30, or we could have lunch at noon, or a late lunch at 1:30 in Spanish. Or we could have dinner on Sunday at 5 or 6, and the kids could play their instruments for you. Whatever you want.”

And the husband rolls his eyes again and says, “Alright, fine, I’ll show up at one of those times.”

Then imagine Saturday and Sunday roll around, and the husband never comes home. Never has a meal with the family. 

The next time she sees him, the wife says, “What happened to you? Did you get sick? Were you in a car accident? Why didn’t you come?”

And the husband says, “Oh, I went out with some friends Saturday night, then on Sunday I slept in, watched some of the game, and got some stuff done at the office. And honestly, I didn’t really feel like having a meal with the whole family.”

That right there would be a relationship killer. It will take a miracle to salvage the relationship between that man and his wife.

And it will take a miracle – specifically, the miracle of confession – to restore the spiritual relationship for someone who does that to God and His family by contempt for the Sunday Mass.

Five

The goodness of Mass

The Church only condemns certain sins as being grave because the good things they attack are so great, so important to human flourishing. So the Church tells us that carelessly missing Mass on Sunday is Grave because Sunday Mass is so great.

Just as one of the greatest goods for me is to sit around the table with my wife and my grown kids and their spouses and my grandkids – so just about the greatest supernatural good for all of us is to come to the Sacred Banquet, the Holy Sacrifice, the Supreme act of Communion with God Himself, and to be united together with all His children gathering on that day throughout the world.

Having family meals together should be an obligation because family meals are one of the greatest of human events. And every good father or mother has, at one point in their life, sat down at that table, looked around, and been astonished at how blessed they are to be just right there with their family.

In a similar way, coming to Mass on Sunday is an obligation, because the Holy Mass is the greatest event that ever happens on this planet. We are obliged to go, but what should really astonish us is that we’re allowed to go at all to something so cosmically profound.

So let’s make sure not to miss it.