Every time that I think I’ve heard all the possible excuses not to go to Mass on Sunday, I hear a new one.
Some of those excuses that I’ve heard the most are: “I am not into the worship thing,” “I worship God in my own way and I don’t need to go to a church to do it,” “God is my friend and he doesn’t care if I don’t go to Mass,” “I went to a Catholic school and I have already attended enough Masses to last me a lifetime.”
For each of these excuses there is a reasonable answer, but I fear that whoever is looking for an excuse has no interest in answers; he or she has only excuses.
The fundamental problem lies in the fact that we don’t make the effort to really understand who God is.
It is true that he is my friend and that he understands me and forgives me and that I can worship him “in my own way.”
But it is also true that he is our Creator, he gave us life and keeps us alive, to him we owe everything we have, he loves us so much that he gave his own Son for our salvation.
Deep in the heart of human beings exists the desire to praise the Creator. And precisely to respond to this desire, which is a true need, is why God established the third commandment:
“Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.”
And this is a commandment that we should practice more urgently in our contemporary culture, which has transformed the holy days of obligation into days to rest, to watch sports, have a barbecue, go shopping or do anything else, except worshipping God by attending holy Mass.
The Compendium of the Catechism reminds us that “Christians keep Sunday and other days of obligation holy by participating in the Eucharist of the Lord and by refraining from those activities which impede worship of God and disturb the joy proper to the day of the Lord or the necessary relaxation of mind and body.”
It also points out that, “Activities are allowed on the Sabbath which are bound up with family needs or with important social service, provided that they do not lead to habits prejudicial to the holiness of Sunday, to family life and to health.” (Compendium 453)
In his beautiful apostolic letter “Dies Domini” (“The Day of the Lord”), Pope John Paul II reminded us that “the duty to keep Sunday holy, above all with participation in the Eucharist and with a rest full of Christian joy and of brotherhood, is well understood if we bear in mind the multiple dimensions of that day.” (Dies Domini 7) Pope John Paul II explains what the dimensions of Sunday are: It is the heart of the week because it is the Day of the Lord, on when we remember and celebrate the happy event of Jesus’ resurrection.
And because it is the Day of the Lord, it is also the “day of man,” where no activity should threaten his dignity as a Son of God; “the day of the family,” a time for the entire family to celebrate together the gift of love; the “day of the poor,” in which we should be particularly generous with those in need as God is magnificent with us; and “the day of nature,” because it is a suitable occasion to contemplate and admire the natural wonders created by God.
In this letter, one that I strongly recommend to all Catholics of the archdiocese, Pope John Paul II also remarks that the celebration of Sunday is not a simple, cold “obligation”: “This is a day that constitutes the very center of Christian life… The time offered to Christ is never wasted time, but rather won for the deep humanization of our relationships and of our lives.” (DD 7)
Let us ask God who is love, to help us rediscover the greatness of Sunday and that the Day of the Lord become for us what it should be: a strong time for communion with God, with ourselves, with human beings and with creation — a foretaste of the unimaginable wonders that await us in heaven.