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I’ve struggled with “Days of Obligation” for Mass. It seems to have such a negative connotation to it.
“I’m obligated to go.”
Doesn’t sound very fun. Or exciting. Just sounds like something the Church forces us to do.
Yet the Church doesn’t actually force us to do anything. We choose it. We choose to be Catholic. We choose to follow the teachings of the Church that Jesus gave us.
So why does it seem there are all these rules the Church gives us? Especially when many of them aren’t explicitly said by Jesus?
You know how when you were a kid, you weren’t always grateful for everything your parents did for you? And because you weren’t grateful you didn’t show gratitude towards your parents? And even if you were grateful, you still weren’t great at showing gratitude? So your parents would have to remind you to be grateful, or to say thank you. And so you did it, even if you didn’t want to, because you knew you should.
The same goes for going to Mass. We don’t always remember to be grateful to God for everything He has blessed us with and continues to bless us with. We don’t always think about Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and what that truly means for our lives. So the Church reminds us that because we have chosen to be Catholic, that we have made our Baptismal promises, that we have even been Confirmed and therefore finalized our initiation into the Church, we are obligated to go to Mass. Because Jesus does explicitly tell us that as often as we do this (eat this Bread and drink this Cup), we proclaim His death (1 Cor 11:26). Eucharist means thanksgiving. We go to Mass to show our gratitude.
We should go to Mass because we’re grateful, but because of everything else we choose to focus on, that we allow to distract us, we forget our gratitude. But the Church, like our parents, reminds us to say thank You.
And Jesus continues to be explicit through Scripture, because Jesus is the Word made Flesh. Which means He is the Word – not just the Gospels, or just the New Testament. The whole enchilada. And if we believe in Jesus, that means we trust in Jesus – not just believe that He is the Son of God and died for our sins. We trust His words. We trust the Word. Not just the parts we like. Not just the nice sounding phrases we can easily take out of context to fit our lives.
We are supposed to change our lives to fit His Word, not change His Word to fit our lives.
