Busy Days

On Not Skipping Mass, Even in the Summer

As summer arrives, the paradoxical occurs. Though summer is the “season of relaxation,” when everyone can be found down at the pool, enjoying the warm heat and long evenings, it is not the most restful season. Rather than being less busy as activities and events wind down, everyone becomes more busy. There are children to watch, parties to host, trips to take, gardens to water. During childhood, summer was a sacred time, an elongated weekend that seemed to stretch far into infinity, blissful and unending.

The nostalgic longing for that time often creeps  up as an adult, but it must, just as often, be pushed aside as the mountain of tasks grows ever higher.  Weekends, the only free time from work, are commandeered into “chore days” where all of the errands, tasks, and projects must be completed. There are so many of them that they are often sped through; attention is missing and things are completed half-way. In the weeks where there is a truly insurmountable amount to complete, we seek to cut down on other commitments: we begin to eye that Sunday Mass suspiciously. Or, when we are on vacation and the nearest church is one long cab ride away, we might consider skipping attendance.

I just don’t have an hour to spare this week. Not even a minute, really. I just can’t get to it. The taxi fare is too expensive to justify. Surely God would understand?

The frazzled weekend turns into another frazzled week. There has been no chance to recoup or recover from the drudgery of life or the monotony of labour. Your muscles are just as sore as they were on Friday. The constant humdrum, without any promise of respite, is deadly. Humans, we are often reminded, are not machines. And they require rest. Rest, not simply in the sense of a good night’s sleep, or a twenty-minute nap snuck in between folding laundry and making dinner. Those are good and necessary, of course, but they are not fulfilling rest. They still leave one empty; indeed, you are just as likely to wake up from your nap with a sense of dread of all that is still ahead of you to do, as you are feeling relaxed and prepared to resume your activities peacefully. The relaxation of time outdoors, or lying in the sun, or going on a vacation, are excellent things. But they are not enough, on their own, to fulfill our deepest needs.

What we require in our innermost selves is the rest of the soul. A moment to give up all that is troubling, disturbing, difficult, distressing. If a burden is never lifted, we become accustomed to its weight and cease to notice that we are slowly faltering. The soul begins to weaken. As stressors accumulate, our will’s resistance deteriorates, too o3verwhelmed. Removed from the grace of spiritual rest, we are more inclined towards vice. 

The obligation to attend Mass is not meant to be taken as a requirement from an implacable Creator. It is not an imperative descending from an implacable dictator, meant to thwart all of one’s plans for the weekend. It is the chance to rest, in the purest meaning of the word: to take off that yoke and put down that burden. As we are made in imago Dei, so we require what God requires. He, after six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day. 

Sometimes, Mass may present itself as a challenge, another thing that must be overcome before one is liberated. It might cut into vacation times, or conflict with various events and parties. Indeed, during the summer, it can just be hard to force oneself indoors on a bright, sunny day. Furthermore, discipline is often more slack in the summer: kids are out of school and parents are using their vacation days. Bedtimes are pushed out. However, the discipline of going to church every Sunday cannot lightly be cast away– it is a habit far more easily broken than made. Once one begins to skip Mass, it becomes difficult to stop.

It is important not to view the Mass or Church as the enemy of the summer, of one’s free time, or of one’s endless to-do lists. Rather than trying to impose itself on already-tight schedules, the Mass seeks to provide the breathing space to get away from those activities, and to return to them with fresh eyes and a renewed spirit. The benefits of the Mass– when one lies in the embrace of that holy rest and puts aside the worries of the day– will always outweigh the difficulties of attendance. 

So, this summer, make an effort to attend Mass every Sunday. There is no greater care for the mind, body, or soul, than in the Church. It will carve a moment of stillness into a hectic week; and turn a quiet day into a restful day.