My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“Mass is boring.” “I don’t get anything out of it.” “I stopped going to Mass because I was not being spiritually fed.”

These are some of the reasons that people give for not going to Mass. Let’s take a look at these excuses that people use to rationalize or justify their absence from church. Having just celebrated Easter with many of our churches packed with people, we might wonder also why some Catholics go to Mass only twice a year, on Christmas and Easter, but not the rest of the year.

“Mass is boring.” This excuse stems from an expectation that Mass is a form of entertainment. We go to a movie, a play, or a concert expecting to be entertained. Our attendance at such events is passive, expecting the performers to provide an engaging and enjoyable experience. For people with such expectations, a homily that is not best-seller quality is disappointing and music that does not meet Grammy Award winning standards is not worth listening to. The problem with this approach is that Mass is not meant to be entertainment. 

The primary reason we go to Mass is to worship God. At a minimum, worshipping God is a matter of obligation and justice. The obligation to attend Mass every Sunday comes from the Third Commandment of the Decalogue, that is, the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses to hand on to the people as described in the Old Testament of the Bible in the Book of Exodus (20:8-11) and the Book of Deuteronomy (5:12-15). Some translations of the Bible translate the Third Commandment as, “Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.” Other translations say, “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.” This obligation, then, comes from God. As such, it is Divine Law, not a man-made law.

For the people of Israel in the Old Testament as well as for Jewish people today, the sabbath or the Lord’s Day is Saturday, the seventh day of the week. Christians observe Sunday as the Lord’s Day because Sunday is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Since Sunday celebrates our Lord’s resurrection, every Sunday in a sense is an Easter celebration. Christians who go to church on Easter Sunday because they want to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection really should want to go to Mass every Sunday to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. In fact, many people who truly understand and appreciate the meaning of the Mass go to church daily to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion, not just on Sundays. 

Saint Ambrose said, “If [Holy Communion] is ‘daily bread,’ why do you take it once a year? Take daily what is to profit you daily. Live in such a way that you may deserve to receive it daily. He who does not deserve to receive it daily, does not deserve to receive it once a year.”

Going to Mass is a matter of justice because justice is defined as giving to others what is due or owed to them, and we owe it to God to worship Him as our Creator and thank Him for our lives and for all the gifts of His creation. In fact, the Mass is also referred to as the Eucharist, a Greek word that means “thanksgiving.” Our national holiday of Thanksgiving, which is observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November, is one of the most popular holidays in our country for secular as well as for religious people. In a sense, every Eucharist is a thanksgiving celebration.

“I don’t get anything out of it.” This excuse stems from an entitlement mentality. Such people think, “God owes me something” or “The Church owes me something.” This approach views God as someone who is expected to fulfill their wants and desires. If I pray to God and He does not give me what I want, then I get angry with God and think there is no point is praying to Him because he does not seem to answer my prayers. But God actually gives us everything that is essential that we need, namely the forgiveness of our sins through Our Lord’s suffering and death on the cross and the invitation to share eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, the gates of which were opened to us through Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

“I stopped going to Mass because I was not being spiritually fed.” This excuse is puzzling because Our Lord feeds us with His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity every time we receive Holy Communion. Anyone who says that he or she is not being spiritually fed at Mass does not understand or appreciate or perhaps does not even believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). St. Padre Pio said, “Always remain close to the Catholic Church, because it alone can give you true peace, since it alone possesses Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the true Prince of Peace.”

May God give us this grace. Amen.