Do we need to go to Mass on Sunday?

Why do we need to be part of a Church?

I read in the press lately that even though there is a fall in attendances in Anglican and Catholic churches,  people are apparently finding a great need to develop their `spirituality`. People appear to be saying more and more, “I believe in God but not religion”, or, “I don`t need to go to Church to be a Good Christian.”

We are led to believe that apparently people are falling away from Church and organized religion, but not necessarily from God.

Can we seriously believe in God and develop that relationship with Him alone – all of the time!

Precisely why is it a rule to go to Mass, and what should we get out of it?

 These are questions that are often asked, and in fact Fr. Paul Hardy, from our Diocese of Northampton, recently wrote in his doctoral thesis that people do not see that there is an obligation on them to attend Mass every Sunday because they consider themselves to be `good Catholics`. For them, Sunday, is not an absolute weekly requirement.

Is it an absolute requirement or not? Do you actually have to go to Church to be a good Christian?

In answering this question we will:

1.      Look at the actual requirements as taught to us by the Church, and then,

2.      Examine the basis on which these requirements were established.

Working backwards then:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), (published in 1995), CCC 2177 says that “the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist is at the heart of the Church`s life ..  and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the UniversalChurch.” Also in CCC 2180 we are advised that “The precept of the Church specifies the law of the Lord more precisely: `On Sundays and other Holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass`”.

Both of these requirements are actually based on and directly quote from The Code of Canon Law, published in English in 1983. The Catechism quotes directly from Canons 1246 and 1247. This revised `book of law` was an update on the previous code published in 1917.

(It will be of interest to us later in this essay, that the 1917 code says that we should hear Mass, whereas the revised version says that we should participate in the Mass.)

So, it is clear, we have an obligation to fulfil.

But as Fr Hardy said, people will not be bound blindly to rules. Especially, as there is no social consensus to go to Mass on Sundays, people will make up their minds. If a Catholic is to accept this `rule` it must bear on a deeper foundation and not appear just as an instruction in a book which very few read.

So let us continue our search for the origin of this obligation – for it existed long before 1917. In fact it is deeply rooted in our Sacred Tradition since the beginning of the Church.

Going back to the early written evidence, we see in the third Century, a Syrian Bishop wrote a small instruction book for himself and other bishops. From it I quote:

“Exhort the people to be faithful to the assembly of the Church. Let them not fail to attend, but let them gather faithfully together. Let no one deprive the Church by staying away; if they do they deprive the Body of Christ of one of its members.”[1]

This is not exactly saying “attend every Sunday”, but as Sunday was the only `day of rest`, the words “let them not fail to attend” could not be interpreted as anything else.

In the 3^rd C. therefore, the tradition of attendance was already established. If we go back to the books of the New Testament we can see where the tradition developed from.

In Acts 2:42-46 we read that “They devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.   All who believed were together and had all things in common.  … Day by day, as they spent much time together in the Temple…”

And in Heb. 10:24, 25, “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, …”

The aforementioned references from the Cathecism also refer to these passages in support of the obligations it sets out, for it was clear, even from these earliest teachings, that it was considered that the Church should live in a community that gathered regularly together. St Paul was clearly of a mind that did not support the idea that you could be good member of the Church without coming together to provoke love and good deeds.

Although the Sabbath, for Christians, moved from the Jewish Saturday to Sunday, the day of the risen Lord, the tradition of keeping the Sabbath Holy had hundreds of years earlier been established by God with Moses; “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy.”[2] Keeping the day holy meant the ritual of prayer and attendance at the temple.

Looking at the second question we ask, why was this regular attendance in community established? What is its importance and is it necessary in order to become a `good Christian`?

Jesus said, in Mt. 18:20, that “where two or three are gathered together in my name then there am I in the midst of them.” St Paul in 1Cor: 12 writes, “For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

One body implies being together as one – ie., one congregation together, in which Christ makes Himself manifest. It is difficult to see how we could be at `one` with that `body` while praying apart from it. It is for that reason we are obliged by these teachings of the Church, ancient and current, to meet together. But what exactly does it mean to be at `one`? How does this happen and how does its significance manifest itself in our lives? The reason why people do not place a high priority in participating at Mass is because they do not understand or perhaps believe, the theology of the Body of Christ.

In his encyclical Mystici Corporis Dei Pope Pius XII says:

“By means of the Eucharistic sacrifice Christ our Lord willed to give the faithful striking union among ourselves and with our Divine Head.”[3] And,

“The Sacrament of the Eucharist is itself a striking and wonderful figure of the unity of the Church.”[4]

This unifying action to which he referred seems to pass many people by. They do not appreciate that they are `in communion` with God and with each other. They do not recognise that they are in the same Body as Jesus, and that He with them is also with all others. Not just in that one church building but in the whole Church. This is why our Syrian Bishop was at pains to encourage attendance at the Sacrament. Not to attend was to weaken that Body of Christ, the Body, which He established to guarantee our salvation. By understanding this we know that death cannot claim us and we will achieve our (and God`s) ambition to be with Him in Paradise.

In the document Sacrosanctum Concilium from the Second Vatican Council we are told that “…the goal of apostolic endeavour is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the Sacrifice and to eat the Lord`s supper.”[5]

Therefore, it is in the Mass that, “grace is poured forth upon us….and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God to which all other activities of the Church are directed, as toward their end, are achieved with maximum effectiveness.”[6]

The document goes on to say that the “promotion of the sacred liturgy, the full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else, for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit.”[7]

The `full and active participation` means participation at Mass. But what is the `true Christian spirit` that we do not achieve without attending?

In short, by being aware of this `unity` that we achieve, we should in turn become aware of the relationship we have with all our brothers and sisters in Christ. This cannot and should not allow us to fail in redirecting our otherwise isolated and independent lives towards one of  `solidarity` with others. Specifically not just developing a charitable attitude (one that most people have as part of their `human nature`). But one that will develop a greater moral bonding with the disadvantaged and a commitment to reverse the structures of sin that put up barriers to their development.[8]

By understanding this belonging to one Body, that of Christ, we could not live by

 cutting ourselves off from that Body. Our very attitude to and how we live our lives must be altered and indeed the social doctrine of the Church is born out of the understanding of the Body of Christ. In his first encyclical Pope Benedict XVI, where he discussed the subject of `solidarity` in the section The practice of love by the Churchas a “community of love”, says that: “….The Church`s social doctrine has become a set of fundamental guidelines offering approaches that were valid even beyond the confines of the Church: in the face of ongoing development these guidelines need to be addressed in the context of dialogue with all those seriously concerned for humanity and for the world in which we live.”[9]

In his book Torture and Eucharist Cavanaugh focuses on the experience of Chile and the Catholic Church during the dictatorship of Pinochet from 1973 – 1990. In his opinion Eucharist is not a `symbol` but the real presence of Christ where He forms His people into `the Body of Christ` thereby producing a sense of communion stronger than any nation-state.

State condoned torture, carried out `in secret` was breaking down society and social cohesion at grass roots level. The Eucharist however was a structure in God that could not be broken down and it was the people`s sense of solidarity with God in the Eucharist that held them together and gave them hope.

 This is why Cavanaugh states that his purpose (in sections 2-4 of  Ch 5) is to show how a “Eucharistic ecclesiology can and should provide the basis for the Church`s social practice.”

Many Contemporary Christians have shied away from the image of the Church as the Body of Christ. “…..the unfaithfulness of the Church in the present age is based to some extent precisely on its failure to take itself seriously as the continuation of Christ`s body in the World and to conform itself, body and soul, not to the world but to Christ (Rom. 12:2)” (Pg 233)

He is reaffirming our previous comments on the lack of proper understanding of the theology of Eucharist. But it was in the harsh reality of torture, abuse and disappearance that the true meaning of Body of Christ, solidarity, made itself known. It was in this environment, where people had no hope, other than in their faith, that the Body of Christ was strongest.

The following three quotations, even though they are taken out of context, should still give us an understanding of the point he is trying to make:

Pg. 266. “There people learned to name the abuses they suffered, and they learned that resistance meant “solidarity”.”

Pg 267. “The Church is said to have helped reknit the social fabric torn apart by the regime`s strategy of atomisation.”     Through the Vicaria,[10] “the Church thereby undertakes the fundamentally Eucharistic task described above as building up the true Body of Christ, a counter discipline to the discipline of state. The practices of the Vicaria are best understood as based on an account of unity which is only found in the Eucharist.”

Pg 268. In the work of Vicaria we see the Church breaking out of its confinement to an imagined realm of the purely “spiritual” and taking body in spaces from which it had been banished. The Church becomes visible, obeying the Eucharistic demand that true unity be achieved, the people overcome alienation from each other and become reconciled, caring for each other, especially the weak, in community and solidarity.”

The Body of Christ, the community of its people, are bound together with Christ in the Eucharist. Christ`s action in the World is through His Body by means of the solidarity wrought through the Eucharist. That `solidarity` of community was the only way they could support each other and resist for so long the forces of oppression. All resistance groups were infiltrated, tortured and wiped out – eventually. But there was only one group that could not be destroyed and that was the Body of Christ, His community, His Church.

This situation was born out in extreme circumstances in Chile, but it helps us to focus on the true meaning of `community through solidarity`. The true meaning of being part of the `Body of Christ`.

It is not therefore possible to be `a good Christian` without being part of that Body in the fullest way. If you are not `in` that Body of Christ, then it will be much more difficult to find  Christ `in` you.

So, keep going to Mass!   – and I hope these thoughts help you as much as writing them helped me, to realize why it is necessary to be a regular member of our `Church`.

 
Deacon Paul.

May `08.

Bibliography:

Cathecism of the Catholic Church. Doubleday. 1995

The Code of Canon Law. Collins Liturgical Publications. 1983.

Vatican Council II: Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. Ed. A Flannery. Dominican Publications. 1985.

Torture and Eucharist. W T Cavanaugh. Blackwell Publishing. 1998.

Mistici Corporis Christi and Mediator Dei. Encyclicals of Pope Pius XII. 1943. www.vatican.va