Dear Grace, When I was growing up, my parents rarely went to Mass on Sunday even though they were Catholic. They made sure we received the sacraments, but did not go to church themselves. Now that I have children of my own, I see that I am falling into the same pattern. Sometimes I think I’ve lost all my faith. I’m not sure if I’ve ever really understood why it’s so wrong not to go to Mass. My father always said that He could worship God right in his own home. Even though I’ve been told that we as Catholics must attend Mass on Sunday, I often find excuses not to go, and I don’t seem to feel guilty about it. What is wrong with me?

There is nothing wrong with you. What you are in need of is some awareness and catechesis (education). Many Catholics have trouble getting themselves to go to Mass. Do you know why? Because they don’t know what is going on there! If they did, they would not be able to wait to get there. I heard a little story once that helps to illustrate this.

It seems there were two college students talking — one was Catholic, the other was non-Catholic. The young Catholic girl was trying to explain to her friend what she believed regarding the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. After listening for a while, the non-Catholic friend asked, “Are you trying to tell me that you actually believe that wafer of bread is the real body of Jesus Christ?” The other girl responded, “Yes, that’s what we believe.” Her friend then said, “If I truly believed that, I would crawl to your church on my hands and knees to receive Him!”

Your father was wrong in thinking that he could worship God the same way at home as in the Mass. At the Mass, we worship Him in the highest way possible because there we have Communion with Him. We are united with Him in the most intimate and real sense. Jesus gives us the greatest gift on earth — Himself!

Allow me to ask you a question. Do you want to go to heaven someday? You will hopefully say yes, as most people would. But does heaven seem like someplace and sometime far away into the future? If it does, think again!

Pope Pius X declared that “Holy Communion is the shortest and surest way to heaven.” The problem today is that we don’t think enough about heaven. The lures of the world draw us away from thinking of it. Do you know that when we cross the threshold of the church and into the Mass, it is like walking into heaven? The Mass is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that we will feast on one day.

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life within you” (Jn 6:53). No life! The Eucharist, which is His body and Blood, is our spiritual life. Without it, we are spiritually dead!

In life, we face a constant battle between good and evil. The Eucharist is the food we need to strengthen and sustain us in this battle. And that’s not all. It not only strengthens us, but transforms us as well. We become different — we become more like Him.

One of the main reasons that Jesus gave us the Eucharist was so that every time we are at Mass and witness the sacrifice He made for us, hopefully we will be moved — transformed. Wouldn’t it change you if you knew that someone had died for you? How often do we think about that when we feel tempted not to go to Mass?

If a Catholic does not desire to go to Mass, it’s because he does not know what he has in the Eucharist. The martyrs of the early Christian Church died for love of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist. They happily went to their death proclaiming “We cannot live without Sunday!”

In his apostolic letter Mane Nobiscum Domine on the current Year of the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II wrote: "In a particular way I ask that every effort be made this year to experience Sunday as the day of the Lord and the day of the Church" (No. 23). Sunday should be a day that is at the heart of the Christian life, the pope urged. "Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ! Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that He may cast light upon it and give it direction" (No. 7).

The Mass should be the high point of our life. But is it? We each have to answer that in our own heart. Open your eyes and you will see what you have!

© Copyright 2005 Grace D. MacKinnon

Grace MacKinnon holds an MA in theology and is a syndicated columnist and public speaker on Catholic doctrine. Her new book Dear Grace: Answers to Questions About the Faith is available in our online store. If you enjoy reading Grace's column, you will certainly want to have this book, which is a collection of the first two years of "Dear Grace." Faith questions may be sent to Grace via email at: grace@DearGraceMinistries.org. You may also visit her online at: www.deargraceministries.org

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