Questions of Faith

Comment

Father Wilmer Todd

Missing Mass while on vacation

During the summer months, our family goes on vacations. I always try to find a place where I know there will be a Saturday evening or Sunday Mass. My intentions are good, but I am not always successful. We go to Mass when we can on the trip, or right away when we arrive home. Is it okay to go to Mass during the week to make up for an unintentional miss on a Sunday?

The Catholic Catechism states, “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor.” The obligation is binding every Sunday. It is a day to grow in our faith, and the church requires Catholics to attend Mass to the extent they are able.

While this obligation is extremely important, it is not absolute. In some situations, the legal obligation to attend Mass ceases. I would like to give two situations. The first pertains to the capacity of a person to participate safely and with due regard to other serious obligations, especially the demands of Christian love. If someone is seriously sick with a contagious disease, unable to get into a church without falling, caring for a sick child, or helping someone through a serious personal crisis, the obligation to attend Mass disappears.

The second set deals with the church’s own inability to provide the means for fulfilling the obligation. If the church cannot organize the celebration of Mass in a particular place, say, in a national park far removed from a town with a Catholic church or during a hurricane, the obligation does not apply. This, by the way, is why many dioceses have moved some holy days, such as the Ascension, to the nearest Sunday. The church never obliges us to do the impossible.

If people are traveling and cannot find a Catholic Church nearby or cannot make it for a good reason, the church excuses them from attending Mass. Weekday Masses do not fulfill the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays. However, going to weekday Masses is a great way to be fed spiritually although it does not fulfill the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays.

From the earliest days of the church, Christians have understood that being a Christian is not a private matter. Jesus calls us to be Christians together. While we should engage in the private worship of God throughout the week, our primary form of worship is public and communal which is why Sunday Mass is so important.

Vatican Council II has defined the Eucharist as: “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.” These are powerful words: “Source and summit of the Christian life.” We become what we eat. When we attend Mass, the Word of God is broken for us; Jesus gives us the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation. We are given food for eternal life.

The Catholic Church is the only religion that imposes an obligation to attend the Sunday Eucharist. Maybe this is because the Mass is complicated. The priest is the leader, but the Eucharist is the prayer of the whole congregation. Everyone is a worshiper and not a spectator.

To answer the question “Who are we?” we proclaim loudly, “We are eucharistic people.” Many people have cut off themselves from the eucharistic meal. They no longer listen to God’s Words being proclaimed. They no longer eat the bread of life or drink from the cup of eternal salvation. Where do they get their spiritual nourishment?

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51).

When we receive Jesus in Communion, this is that “summit” Vatican II talked about; it is the meeting of Jesus and his people. As Catholic Christians we are ever becoming the Body of Christ. When the minister holds up the host and says “The Body of Christ,” we answer “Amen.” By responding to it, we say “yes” to God. We need to be active members of the Body of Christ.

An App called Mass Times for Travel will give you the time and locations of Masses in places you may be planning to visit. BC