As I write this, I have just come back from offering the 7 a.m. and Noon Masses on Ash Wednesday. For me as pastor, the experience was like a shot of spiritual B-12! The numbers of people coming and participating in Mass was an inspiration!

With the beginning of Lent, God offers all of us the opportunity to participate in Sunday Mass and Holy Communion. In our Catholic tradition, we speak of the “obligation” to participate in the Mass every Sunday and holy day, unless serious circumstances prevent us from doing so. I know that in our culture, an obligation does not seem so much like an invitation as a burden or unpleasant task. However, there are good and positive reasons why Catholics should gladly assume the obligation of Sunday Mass.

As creatures of a loving God, we owe God proper worship. The obligation is ours by the nature of things. Everything we have comes from God. We cannot be fully human without a relationship with God in which we invest ourselves in a way that is pleasing to God. Already in the Old Covenant, God revealed the kind of worship that is pleasing to God and good for us. This included regular observance of the Sabbath.

Now in the New Covenant, we see the extent of God’s love for us in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. We are invited by Jesus to share in his perfect worship of the Father. Participation in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and in the power of the resurrection is available to us fully in the Mass. This is the worship that is pleasing to God, and so we owe it to God. We are blessed to have this joyful duty so accessible to us in our parish week by week.

When we say that we have “missed” Mass on Sunday, we only acknowledge part of the truth. We have actually chosen to do something else instead, something that is not the right worship of God. Even without fully intending it, we have placed a false god at the head of the week’s activities and responsibilities. A serious disorder results in the life-giving relationship that God is offering us in the sacrifice of Jesus.