It's not because going to church is important, or because it's the unbroken practice of Christians for two thousand years, or even because the third commandment is to keep the Lord's Day holy. Although these things are certainly at the heart of weekly attendance at church, none of them establishes an absolute requirement that we assist at Mass every single Sunday without exception. The real reason missing Sunday Mass is a mortal sin is, simply, because the Church says so.
A little precision is in order. First of all, there are obviously exceptions. As the Catechism notes, illness, the care of an infant, or even a dispensation granted by one's pastor can excuse a person from the obligation of attending Mass on a particular Sunday. Also, it's important to note that the Catechism describes willfully missing Mass on a Sunday or Holyday of Obligation as a "grave sin," not a "mortal sin." A grave sin only constitutes a radical turning of one's heart away from God when it is committed with "full knowledge" and "deliberate consent," and clearly there are times when the failure to attend Mass does not meet one or both of these criteria. Perhaps, for example, a person forgot yesterday to reset the clock for daylight saving time!
But if a person really does willfully miss Mass, fully knowing and deliberately consenting to what he is doing, he commits a mortal sin. And again, this is because the Church has so decreed. Specifically, it's the first of the precepts of the Church, which are "positive" laws, meaning that they have been established by the human authority of the Church, not by God Himself. The other precepts include yearly confession and reception of Holy Communion, observation of days of fasting and abstinence, and provision for the material needs of the Church. As the Catechism puts it, these precepts have been established "to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum" they must put into "growth in love of God and neighbor."
Why am I making such a big deal out of our Sunday obligation being a man-made law? Because I think it's at the root of the rebellion of many people against it. We moderns find it hard to countenance that the power of "binding and loosing" has been granted to mere human beings. Who does the Church think she is to tell me that I have to keep the Lord's Day holy in the particular way they want, especially when they--that is, the cardinals, bishops, and priests--are caught up in sex abuse scandals? It's the same rebellion that afflicts so many Catholics with regard to the Church's sexual teachings, or her requirement that we confess our sins to a priest. Who are you to hear my sins? Who are you to tell me what is licit in my sex life?
Perhaps the greatest mystery of the Church's foundation is that Christ granted His own authority to weak human beings, including the grant of apostolic primacy to the very man who would fail in courage and deny Him three times. It's entirely, indisputably biblical, by the way. Christ told Peter that he is the "rock" upon whom He would establish His Church, and that "whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven..." (Matthew 16:18-19).
But why? Why ascend into heaven and leave the likes of the Borgias and McCarricks in charge of things? Why establish a stumbling block, something that folks can point to when they'd rather do things their own way and say, as Ghandi supposedly did, "If it weren't for the Christians, I'd be a Christian." Whatever the answer, it has something to do with the capital sin of pride and Christ's example of humility, and something to do with removing the beam in my own eye before casting the mote out from the eye of my neighbor.
These days it takes a great deal of humility to be Catholic. Pray God that we all grow in that virtue. Attendance at Mass on Sundays, at a minimum, is a great place to start!
What I hear you saying is that solid Christian tradition and the The Commandments only establish attendance at church as a good and holy and recommended practice. From these rule alone we cannot come to the conclusion that missing Mass on Sunday is a mortal sin, but only that one ought to go frequently as a regular practice.
ReplyDeleteThe obligation to attend every single Sunday is a matter of positive law (made by men). I completely agree with that position. However, the very concept of mortal sin is not something that is true for one person but not true for another, or true in some countries but not true in others. Adultery is not acceptable for some people but forbidden for others.
Yet this is exactly what the obligation to attend Mass is. The obligation to attend Mass on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul is binding under mortal sin if the bishops have declared it to be so, but if the bishops of a country of dispensed from this rule then you can skip the mass without guilt.
It is a "mortal sin" to eat meat on Fridays if the Bishops have retained this obligation, but if they have dispensed from it then Catholics can eat meat without guilt.
This is absurd!
The church has the power to change its laws, but the church does not have the power to make acceptable things mortal sins, or to make mortal sins acceptable. It cannot turn the ten commandments into fifteen commandments and declare them all to be grave obligations.
I agree that mortal sin in itself is not one thing for some people and another thing for other people. The common factor regardless of one's country or region in this instance, however, is acknowledgment of the apostolic authority to bind and loose. My whole argument was that folks aren't so much rejecting the importance of church on Sunday as they are rejecting the bishops' authority to bind them to attend Sunday Mass under the pain of mortal sin. I think it was great wisdom on the part of Jesus to give the apostles the authority to bind and loose. Our human nature is always looking for wiggle room, so to speak. Circumstances change over time and from place to place. Things don't apply to every person in exactly the same way, even if they are universally good things. Take, for example, breathing. It's universally a good thing. However, if a person dips his head underwater, then it would be better if he temporarily refrains from breathing. It's similar, I would argue, with positive laws that help us to clarify and establish precise minimums, which may differ from region to region and over time.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the Church isn't adding an "eleventh" commandment in binding Catholics to attend Sunday Mass. Rather, she is interpreting "Keep the Lord's Day Holy" in a particular way, establishing one aspect of minimally observing that commandment. By what power? By the power that Christ granted to Peter and his successors to bind and loose.
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