![]() I can pray in my heart.” God is God, and we are His creatures: unless we are sick, facing an emergency, or have some other serious reason, we owe God His due worship. We cannot play games with God and say, “Oh, God will understand. God must come first– not soccer or baseball, the shopping mall, or bed. I think those that disregard the obligation of attending Sunday Mass for some frivolous reason or lame excuse either do not understand what they are missing or have their priorities out of order. ![]() The Mass becomes the launchpad for the rest of the week. When “the Mass has ended” and we have given thanks, we then go on to our regular routine and our busy world, but we take Jesus with us. We are then plunged into the mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, and nourished again through a sharing in His sacred Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. We are nourished through the Word of God proclaimed in Sacred Scripture and explicated by the priest. At Mass, we affirm our identity as a Roman Catholic Christian. We gather as a Body of Christ sharing a common unity of faith and baptism which overrides any ethnic, cultural, or other difference. While this is a precept of our Church, we should consider it a privilege to attend Mass. Just as we attend to our material and physical concerns– such as getting proper sleep, food, exercise, and hygiene– we must attend to the well-being of our souls through prayer and public worship. Thomas Aquinas’ thought, we have a moral obligation to give visible, public, and regular worship to the God who created all things, including ourselves, who has blessed us in many ways, and who has saved us from sin. This obligation makes perfect sense: Following St. The Code of Canon Law logically mandates, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass” (#1247). Since the days of the apostles, the Church community has gathered together on Sunday to attend Mass. Our first priority is to worship God publicly by participating at Holy Mass. 165) wrote, “Sunday, indeed, is the day on which we hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God, transforming the darkness and matter, created the world and our Savior, Jesus Christ, arose from the dead on the same day.”ĭespite our very complex and busy modern times, we must strive to keep the “Sabbath Day”– Sunday– holy. ![]() Therefore, Sunday is the fulfillment of the Sabbath of the Old Testament. Sunday marks the day of the new covenant when Christ, the High Priest who had offered Himself as the Unblemished Passover Lamb of Sacrifice on the altar of the cross, gave the promise of everlasting life. For us, Sunday marks the day of the new creation, when Christ conquered sin, darkness, and death. ![]() The Sabbath was indeed the Day of the Lord.įor Christians the “Sabbath” rest was transferred to the first day of the week– Sunday, the day our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Therefore, the Sabbath was not only a day of rest and refreshment for everyone, being mindful of the many blessings received through creation, but also a day of remembering the covenant He had made with His people through the Passover sacrifice and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. That is why the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15). While the Sabbath commemorated God’s day of rest during the seven-day creation account of Genesis, it was also sacred because of what God had done for His people when He liberated them from slavery in Egypt: “For remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God, brought you from there with his strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the Lord has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11). In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them but on the seventh day He rested. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. The Third Commandment given by God to Moses clearly stated, “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
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