With restrictions on public gatherings lessening across the country, many Catholic dioceses are beginning to reinstate the obligation for the faithful to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days. But will Catholics come back?
While many eagerly returned to Mass as soon as public liturgies were available, some have delayed their return (at least until they are vaccinated) out of concern for their health. Still others have stayed home because they’ve grown accustomed to online worship, preferring to dial in to their favorite priest. And sadly, many have fallen away from Sunday worship entirely. This presents an opportunity for us to ask the question: Why does it matter if we’re at Mass?
The Sunday obligation has its roots in the Jewish observance of the Sabbath, itself rooted in God’s rest on the seventh day of creation, which He blessed and made holy (Gen 2:3). Sabbath observance has always included both rest and worship. Even before the establishment of the Ten Commandments, God instructed Moses to demand Pharaoh,
“Let my people go, that they may hold a feast for me in the wilderness” (Ex 5:1). Every seven days that Pharaoh refused to allow the Hebrews to worship God, a new plague was visited upon Egypt until the Jewish people were finally liberated at the first Passover. Once freed from their slavery, God gave His people the Ten Commandments; the first being to worship God alone, and the second to “remember the sabbath day and keep it holy” (Ex 20:8).
The early Church observed the Sabbath by gathering to break bread (celebrate the Eucharist) on “the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:2). Sunday became the Lord’s Day (Rev 10:1), the day Christ rose from the dead and the first day of a new creation. The rhythm of life for God’s people has thus always centered around a weekly day of rest and worship.
This is for our good. God doesn’t need our worship, after all, but we need to worship Him. “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mk 2:27). It is a weekly reminder that we are not made for toil but for relationship with God. Therefore it is “right and just” (to quote from the Roman Missal) that we pause from the work of serving our human masters to engage in the work of serving our Divine Master.
But do we need to congregate in a church to do this? Can’t we give God praise at home? It’s true, the obligation for Christians to gather for corporate worship on Sundays is serious, but not absolute.
Church law recognizes that participation in Sunday Mass may sometimes be impossible “for grave (serious) reasons” in which case there would be no sin in missing it. Such reasons would include the unavailability of a priest, a physical inability to travel to church, illness, or the care of those who are ill. In these cases the Church recommends we “spend an appropriate time in prayer, whether personally or as a family” (1248).
So if it’s possible to keep the Lord’s Day privately, why does it matter if we participate in corporate worship at Mass? It has to do with that word “corporate,” from the Latin corpus meaning “body.”
By baptism we are incorporated (there’s that word again) into the Body of Christ. To call the Church the Body of Christ is not to speak metaphorically: it’s a sacramental reality.
The Church extends the incarnation of God in Christ through space and time. St. Paul writes, “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (1 Cor 12:27). Therefore, it is fitting that we gather to worship as a body, especially on the Lord’s Day. The Body needs its members. When part of the Body is missing, the Body suffers.
Watching a livestreamed liturgy is akin to speaking to a distant loved one on the phone. You’re glad to be able to do it, but it’s not the same as giving them a hug. God left us His Real Presence – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – in the Eucharist so that we could commune with Him in both body and spirit. The Second Vatican Council speaks of the importance of Christians participating in the Eucharist intelligently, devoutly and actively as a means of sharing in Christ’s eternal sacrifice. “Offering the spotless victim not only at the priest’s hands, but also, themselves, offering it together with him, they should learn to make the oblation of themselves. Day by day through Christ the Mediator, they should grow into an ever more perfect unity with God and one another, until at last God becomes all things in all of them” (“Sacrosanctum Concilium,” 48).
St. Paul speaks of Christ being all in all in reference to how our life is hidden with Christ in baptism (Col 3:1-11). He speaks of God being all in all as everything is subjected to Christ (1 Cor 15:28). This is the mystical reality that is made manifest at every Mass. We who are incorporated by the Spirit into the Body of Christ offer to God the Father the Eucharistic Body of Christ at the hands of the priest who acts in the person of Christ, who is head of the Body. It’s all an action of Christ. The Eucharistic liturgy is truly nothing less than the Son’s perfect self offering to the Father through the Spirit; an act of divine worship in which we are able to participate by God’s grace.
That makes the Mass the closest thing on earth to heaven. It is the wedding supper of the Lamb, to which we have been invited. Let’s not linger outside, watching through the windows, when we are able to enter and partake of the feast.
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate.