Host Cy Kellett welcomes Joe Heschmeyer to talk with a concerned catholic.
Transcript:
Caller: I’m contemplating leaving the Church because missing Mass is a mortal sin. I miss Mass due to I work nights and sleep and then sometimes my schedule changes and I can’t make it to the morning service. I want to know more why it’s a mortal sin and why the church would condemn me to hell for missing Mass.
Joe Heschmeyer: Wow, those, those are big. And I’m really, really glad that you called in because I think there’s really two issues. One is why do we take the Sunday obligation so seriously? And two is are you condemned to hell? And I really want to answer the first one by saying it’s not as bad as it might sound and that there’s going to be good news here. But, but first I want to just address like why, why do we take this so seriously? And the idea, I’d put it really simply, that the point of the Christian life is union with God, to know, love and serve God in this life and enjoy him forever. And if that’s true, if we take that seriously, then there’s a real sense in which worship, prayer and worship, but in a special way, the Eucharist should be the center of our lives, you know, the source and summit of the Christian Life, as the Second Vatican Council says. And so for that reason, Hebrews 10 in verse 24 and 25 says, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more, as you see the day drawing near, that we should take very seriously this idea, not only praying, but praying in community with one another so that we can be spiritually brothers and sisters to one another and to be united with them in this deeper way, in a way that really stirs us up to deeper love and to deeper good works and all of that. So for all of those reasons, the idea of there being an obligation is really built on this biblical idea that we’re not to neglect it. This is not just an optional part of Christianity, whether or not we’re going to go to church, that this should be the center of any well formed Christian’s life. That’s the first part. But the second part is all of that being true. There are still a lot of reasons why a person might not be able to go to Mass. And I think you’ve mentioned some of them. You can also think about, you know, soldiers who are at war. You know, take, you know, someone who gets lost at sea and there’s no church around. Or during COVID when all the churches were closed so for any number of reasons, you may find yourself in a situation where it’s really impossible or extremely impractical to go to Mass, or it may just be a bad idea to go to Mass. It’s really icy out, you have a disease that might spread. Any of those reasons or are really good reasons not to go to Mass, not because you’re not putting God first, but because you’re taking appropriate precautions, or it’s simply impossible. God never commands the impossible. And that’s an important kind of principle to bear with here. In the Code of Canon Law, it talks about how for a just cause, the bishop or even the pastor in individual cases can make dispensations from this. But in addition, the. The sin is related to, like a grave not having a grave cause, not having a just cause. That. In other words, if you’re missing Mass because you just can’t make it, as opposed to because you don’t care about Mass or because of negligence or any of these other reasons, that’s a different situation. And so a situation where there’s only one available Mass and it’s really difficult to make, and you do your best to make it, but you don’t make it. Sometimes that’s a totally different moral situation than the person who’s negligent about Mass or apathetic or indifferent to Mass. And so don’t assume yourself to be damned when the Church is not saying that, like what is condemned is lightly disregarding the need to go to Mass because we’re not to neglect, as Hebrews 10 says. But if for a just cause, for a good reason, you can even get a dispensation from your priest to just say, hey, I know you’re working until, you know, whatever. And it would not be healthy for you to get two hours of sleep or whatever the situation is, the priest can dispense in those cases. Or you in prudential judgment can decide it isn’t a good idea for me to try to go to Mass here. There are any number of these situations. You know, if you’ve got little kids and there’s like a diaper explosion two minutes before you go out the door, you may be super late to Mass. That’s different than the person who is. Is just watching TV and shows up equally late like the. The church and more importantly God, they get these things. So don’t feel yourself condemned on these kind of legalistic grounds, because that’s not what the church actually teaches about the Sunday obligation.
Cy Kellett: What do you think, Jennifer? Does that give you some solace well.
Caller: Well, what? The dispensation from the priest. So then maybe I didn’t explain, explain it clear enough to the priest because he said he wasn’t going to give me a dispensation.
Joe Heschmeyer: Yeah, I don’t, to be honest, I don’t know the particulars enough of kind of your situation. And I don’t want to get in the middle of that relationship. I would just say be clear about like, your best efforts. I would say don’t, don’t take it lightly. You try to go to Mass, but at the same time, in spite of your best efforts. Oh, yeah.
Caller: This is causing me such distress. Such distress. Because I like, I go to daily Mass, but if I miss a daily Mass, then I don’t have that distress of, oh, I’m going to Hell. And so, yeah, it’s not lightly, it’s causes. It’s like, well, if I’m going to go to hell and I’m just going to be an observer at Mass because I can’t go to Communion because I’m immortal sin, then I might as well just, you know, resign to be.
Joe Heschmeyer: No, I would.
Caller: Don’t.
Joe Heschmeyer: Don’t give into the voice of despair that is never coming from God, that voice of discouragement, and just give up now. You can’t do it. That’s, you know, that’s coming from the enemy.
Caller: Right.
Joe Heschmeyer: So I’d say paragraph 2181 of the Catechism says the Sunday Eucharist is a foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. That’s the first thing I said. For this reason, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation unless excused for a serious reason. And it gives the examples of illness or the care of infants or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin. Now, notice that bit about deliberately failing in it. If you’re not deliberately failing it and accidentally oversleep, you’re not doing the thing that’s condemned.
Caller: Oh, okay. Yeah. That is comforting. That is.
Joe Heschmeyer: Okay, good. Very good.
Caller: Because, because, you know, I hear. You hear. Oh, well, back in the day, people would walk for hours to get to church and you know, and they’re heroic in there getting the church and like, I should be able to wake up,
Joe Heschmeyer: you know, you’re working. This is, this is one of those things. It’s easy to say somebody else did this really heroic thing. Why can’t I do that? And that’s not really how sainthood works. Like your gifts and talents and your struggles may not be the same as the gifts and the talents and the struggles, the person next to you or the saint that you read about. And so, you know, don’t compare yourself in that way. You give it the best effort you can give it. And if, despite your best efforts, you miss Mass sometimes through no intentional fault of your own, just because you oversleep or your work schedule gets in the way and you can’t do anything about it. You know, the. The principle I’d point to is when Jesus says that the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath, that you. This should not be something legalistic. And is clear from the fact you go to daily Mass that you’re not treating Christian worship as something dispensable or irrelevant. And so I, I think that would just be a good conversation to continue to have with the priest. You love Mass. You are there as often as you possibly can be. But there may be some situations that are extremely and legitimately difficult for you. You know, when, when our kids were born, my wife was definitely not at Mass on that Sunday because she’d just given birth. She physically, I guess, could have. We could have, like, brought her in, but I. No, that’s not what God commands in this situation. Yeah.
Cy Kellett: Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for your call today. And I, again, I. I hope that answer brings you some solace. Anything else that comes up, certainly.