Do We Underestimate the Mass?

Teaching in a parochial school, I got to know the kids and remarked to one of the teenage girls that I had not seen her Sunday at Mass. When I asked her what happened, she said that she overslept in the morning and had to go to a concert later that day. I asked further, "Which is more important, a concert or the Mass?" She hesitated. Our friendship was such that she giggled and said, hesitantly, "The concert?" Then she quickly added, "I don't know." Afterall, she informed me, the concert was a one-time thing. She could always go to Mass. This came from no pagan but a nice Catholic girl. How many others would have echoed her confusion? There would probably be quite a few. Many of our Catholic people will pay hundreds of dollars for concerts and sporting events, but often miss Mass which is free. Oh yes, there is a collection basket, but how many give anything near to what they spend in recreation and luxuries? No one has ever been thrown out of the church building because of their poverty. Indeed, Pope John Paul II has said that the poor are the treasure of the Church. Anyone who tried to enter a concert under a similar pretext would no doubt be thrown out. The young girl to whom I spoke did admit that she sometimes found the liturgy boring. Truthfully, it is very difficult in this day and age to offer liturgies that appeal to all tastes. However, should our main motivation be entertainment or the rightful worship of God? We come to Mass, not simply for what we can receive, but for what we can offer, ourselves with Christ, as an acceptible sacrifice to the Father.

Because the Mass is the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary, it is of infinite worth. It is more important than all the secular entertainments combined since the beginning of civilization. Priests who offer Mass every day are even advised to treat every Mass as if it would be their last. We do not know the day or the hour of our death. For all we know, we may have already attended our final Eucharist. The appointed time is now. The present moment should not be wasted on a tomorrow that is uncertain. We who regularly participate in the Mass are promised a place at the banquet table of heaven. What we now perform behind sacred signs, we will immediately experience. Hope will be realized. Faith will be replaced by first-hand knowledge and experience of the God who became a man to save us and who continues to call us to himself.

In our confrontation with sin, the Mass is our greatest aid in the liberation of our souls from their bondage to sin and death. The Mass breaks the chains of dispair by allowing us to meet Christ and to be showered in his salvific action.

Given our post-9-11 world, we often worry about political regimes and the hardship they inflict; however, Satan's kingdom, though doomed, is the most spiteful and ruthless of all. We see evidence of it as it overshadows human dictatorships and fuels oppression. In contrast, the Mass nurtures the divine life given to the baptized. We belong to another kingdom. It is a noble thing for us to love our country, but if there should be a conflict between Christ's kingdom and our own, Christ's must receive our first loyalty. It is virtuous for us to love our families, but our support for spouses, children, siblings, and other relatives must never translate itself in terms antithetical to the Gospel. We even see evidence of this in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles when Christians were betrayed by family members to the authorities; refusing to recant their newfound faith, they would forfeit their mortal lives. Our spiritual family, in the final analysis, must take precedence over our family by blood. Ideally, the two may be combined but such is not always the case.

As long as the Church endures, so will the Mass. Accidental aspects of it might change, but the essentials will remain the same. It is peculiar that Science Fiction, which is very popular with people these days, often has few references to religious faith. One would think from Star Trek that all religion is myth and that if there is any kind of enduring faith at all then it is a combination of technology and secular humanism. Such will not be the case. There is no guarantee that the Church will remain her present size; nevertheless, it is promised that when Christ returns, his bride, the Church, shall be waiting for him. In our own age, on such matters as abortion, euthanasia, bio-engineering, capital punishment, nuclear warfare, etc., the Church has become the world's conscience. Even if no one were to listen, the Church would still have to speak what it considers to be the mind of Christ.

That Mass, and our frequent participation, insures that we are still undergoing spiritual formation from Christ and his Church. Even polls show that the values and even politics of Catholics who participate at weekly Sunday Mass is vastly different from infrequent worshippers and drop-outs. Our exposure to the Word of God, the preaching of the Church, our prayers of faith, and the powerful graces of the sacrament make a difference in the lives of most believers. Of course, this presumes that the person in the pews approaches the altar with a humble faith and in solidarity with Christ Crucified.