Bring ‘Em Back! Part 5

This is the fifth in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic. 

The Third Commandment

The third Commandment is clear: “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.”  When a Catholic does not go to Mass on Saturday Evening or Sunday that person is breaking the third Commandment and committing a mortal sin.

But it’s possible the person is breaking the First Commandment as well – making sports, shopping, sleeping in, other activities, or even their own hubris (pride in their own mistaken ideas) into gods that are more important than God.

God’s Words

God explains the third commandment to Moses in Exodus 20:8-11:

“Remember the Sabbath day—keep it holy.  Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your work animal, or the resident alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

But notice that God did not tell Moses to let everyone, individually, decide how to “Remember the Sabbath day.“ God left it up to Moses and the priests to decide how His Chosen People would keep holy the Sabbath.  Moses and the priests decided the Sabbath would be a day of rest, prayer, worship, and spiritual enrichment – studying the Torah.

Back in 1,400 BC this was quite a novel idea.  People usually worked all day, every day just to stay alive.  Only the wealthy had leisure time.  So strange was the idea of a day off every week that the Greeks thought the Hebrews were lazy!

The Sabbath, however, was more than a day of rest and prayer for the Hebrews.  It was also a day of remembrance – remembering both creation and their delivery from slavery.  So, from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, the Hebrews kept the Lord’s Day holy.

Our Obligation

Catholics have it a lot easier.  The Catholic Church says our obligation to keep holy the Sabbath is fulfilled by attending Mass on Sunday.  The Sabbath itself is still Saturday, but our obligation to worship God is now on Sunday, the Lord’s Day.  This is in commemoration of Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is also in keeping with the establishment of the New Covenant with all of mankind.

As the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” (CCC) states:

1166 “By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday.” The day of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the “eighth day,” on which Christ after his “rest” on the great sabbath inaugurates the “day that the Lord has made,” the “day that knows no evening.” The Lord’s Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet.”

So going to Mass on Sunday is not an ‘if you feel like it’ suggestion.  It is HOW Catholics ‘keep Holy the Lord’s Day.’

False gods

There are, of course, valid reasons for missing Mass on Sunday.  If you are sick in bed, for instance, you do not have to go to Mass.

But remember, too, the First Commandment: I am the LORD your God, you shall not have other gods beside me.  The First Commandment makes it clear that God expects us to keep Him first in our lives, above everything and everyone else.

Sleeping in on Sunday, playing golf, going shopping, or taking the kid to his or her soccer match instead of going to Mass, is putting something else – a false god – before God.  So in such instances not going to Mass on Sunday is breaking two Commandments instead of just one.  We are making our own wants and ourselves into gods.

Sin

Every Catholic should know that breaking any of the Commandments is a sin.  More to the point, it is a mortal sin.

The word sin is not used much these days.  But at some point during your discussion with your lapsed Catholic loved you may have to revisit the concept of ‘sin.’

The CCC explains what sin is:

“1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”

More importantly, “Sin is an offense against God” (CCC 1850). And a mortal sin is a grievous sin.

“1855 Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law” whereas venial sin “allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.”

The Consequences of Mortal Sin

Catholic Doctrine is clear about what happens if someone dies in a state of mortal sin:

“1033 . . . To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”

The point here is simple.  Habitually not going to Mass on Sunday is committing mortal sin over and over.  If we die in a state of unrepentant mortal sin we go to hell.  There are no do-overs and no appeals.

Yes, God is merciful, but He is also just.  In fact, justice and mercy are perfect in Him.  But assuming His justice will take a back seat to His mercy and His love for us is probably not a good gamble.

Fortunately for all of us, even though we are all sinners God forgives our sins if we go to Confession.  So even if someone has not been to Mass on Sunday for 10 or 20 years, he or she can wipe the slate clean and cleanse his or her soul by going to Confession.

A Key Question

A really good question to have at the ready in discussing any of the seven excuses is one that philosophers have been asking for millennia: Why we are here?  As Catholics we know the answer to that question: God made us and put us on this planet for one reason only – to know, love and serve Him.  That is why we are here.  Everything else is secondary.

But what some Catholics do not seem to understand is that we do not go to Mass to worship God because He commands us to worship Him.  As Jesus tells the Pharisees in Mark 2:27: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

God gave us the Third Commandment for our sake, not because God is commanding us to worship Him.  In all probability, He had Jesus’ Death and Resurrection in mind.

The Eucharist

Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, when He and His Apostles commemorated the Passover before his arrest and crucifixion. “Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me” [Luke 22:19].

Jesus had already told His Apostles that His Flesh was real food in John 6:55-58: “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”  Protestants tend to either ignore this verse or say, ‘Jesus was talking symbolically,’ but Catholics know better – or at least they should know better.  (If your lapsed Catholic loved one thinks differently, you might want to refer to my April 17, 2021 CS article “Science has Proven the Real Presence.”)

The Eucharist is the focal point of the Mass.  As Pope Paul VI says in Lumen Gentium (11) the Eucharist is “”the font and apex of the whole Christian life.”

So, Catholics keep the Lord’s Day holy by going to Mass on Sunday, and, providing we are in a state of grace, by entering into communion with our Savior Jesus Christ.  We receive Him into our own bodies.

And even if we are unable to receive Communion, we can still thank God for everything He has given us and commemorate the Pascal Mystery.  We can tell God that we are sorry for our sins and to ask Him to help us keep Him first in everything we do.

Nothing Else Comes Close

Even if we don’t care for the hymns, and the homilies are less than memorable, and even if we are unable to receive the Eucharist, going to Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday is the most important thing we do each week.  I reiterate –

GOING TO MASS ON SATURDAY EVENING OR SUNDAY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE DO EACH WEEK.

Nothing else comes close to the importance of going to Mass because at Mass Jesus Christ is physically present there with us.  We go to Mass to be in Jesus’ presence, and hopefully, to unite ourselves with Him through the Eucharist.

As the Catechism tells us, Jesus command to “Do this in memory of Me” is directed toward the Eucharist AND the celebration of the Mass.

WE GO TO MASS TO REFRESH OUR SOULS AND TO WORSHIP GOD.

Final Note

There is a wonderful video that you might want to watch with your lapsed Catholic loved one about what happens at Mass.  The video is The Veil Removed and it can be viewed here.  Check it out!

Next Monday, Part 6: Excuse #1.

Part 1 is here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here; Part 4 here; Part 6 here; Part 7 here; Part 8 here; Part 9 here; Part 10 here; Part 11 here; Part 12 here; Part 13 here; Part 14 here; Part 15 here.