The Sunday Obligation Explained | Dr. Brant Pitre

[Music] why do catholics have to go to mass every sunday and when can catholics be excused from going to sunday mass and where does the sunday obligation come from in the bible these are all questions that maybe you've had over the course of your life i know i've had them and in this presentation what i want to do is answer these questions by starting with what the catholic church the official catechism of the catholic church actually teaches about the sunday obligation and then showing you where it comes from in scripture and in church tradition so i'm going to begin with this quote from the official catechism of the catholic church on the sunday obligation and this is what it says about our obligation to go to sunday mass quote the sunday eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all christian practice for this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the eucharist on days of obligation unless excused for a serious reason for example illness the care of infants or dispensed by their own pastor those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin end quote okay there's a lot there that we want to unpack first notice that it says that sunday mass is the foundation of all christian practice of our whole lives as christians right second notice it uses the language of obligation to describe how important our participation in the eucharist every week is and this is this is actually helpful for us if you're from the south right if someone says much obliged to you what do they mean they mean i'm in debt to you right i'm indebted to you so what exactly is the nature of our debt to god that we pay when we worship him every week another aspect of the passage that that stands out to me is the section about missing mass did you catch that it says that anyone who deliberately fails to fulfill their sunday obligation commits a grave sin now how can it be a grave sin just to miss mass on sunday i'll never forget the first time i read this paragraph from the catechism of the catholic church i was actually in college at the time right and um i was i was interested in my faith but like a lot of college students i had you know started skipping sunday mass every now and then but i was still interested enough to be reading the catechism of the catholic church and when i got to this paragraph i remember thinking huh that is so lame right just to get people to go to church they got to make it a grave sin right that's how badly they need you to come into church so i kind of i reacted against it rather than listening to it right and kind of trying to receive it because frankly deep down what i felt guilty that i had been skipping math and it wasn't going to mass like my parents had brought me up to do so how can the church teach that how can it be a grave sin to deliberately miss mass and also if it's so important for us to go to mass every single sunday what about being dispensed from it or excuse from it if it's so important how can we be excused or dispensed from the sunday obligation under certain conditions what are those conditions and one reason this is an important question is because in the spring of the year 2020 as you all know right the coronavirus pandemic broke out and something unprecedented happened in the whole history of the church the vatican in rome and then catholic bishops throughout the world lifted the obligation to attend sunday mass right so that people did not have to go to the eucharist because of what was taking place with the coronavirus right and because of the dangers that it posed to their flocks in different countries throughout the world now this had never happened before i'll never forget when i saw the news that the vatican wasn't going to have easter services for holy week right this is an unprecedented event and it raised a question for a lot of people hold on how can the pope or the bishops how do they have the authority to lift the obligation for sunday mass when it's so important i've been taught my whole life i have to go to mass every sunday right so in our current context now that we're in 2021 a number of bishops throughout the country and throughout the world are beginning to reinstate that sunday obligation and so this raises a really important pastoral question for christians everywhere for catholics why do we have the sunday obligation where does it come from and why is it important to our lives of faith that's we're going to look at in this presentation and what we're going to do is we're going to look at three key topics first we're going to look at sabbath rest in the old testament i love the old testament so we've got to go back to the beginnings of the bible to really understand it second we're going to look at sunday worship in the new testament and how the early church celebrated the lord's supper or the eucharist as it was later called and then third and finally we're going to end with the sunday obligation today what does the church teach today about the sunday obligation and how can we live that out in our lives of faith as as catholics all right so that's the basic uh plan for this presentation so let's just dive right in and start with the first topic and that is sabbath rest in the old testament okay if we're going to understand the sunday obligation we have to begin not with the catechism not waiting with the new testament but with the old testament we have to go back to the bible and to its beginnings and when we do we can answer the question where does the sunday obligation come from in scripture all right so in order to see that let's begin with uh the key passage here from the old testament exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11 it is the famous commandment to keep the sabbath holy in the ten commandments and here's the text for you it's right here on your outline in exodus chapter 20 it says this quote remember the sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a sabbath to the lord your god in it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter or your manservant or your maidservant or your cattle so even the cows get a day off right or the sojourner who is within your gates for in six days the lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day therefore the lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it all right end quote that's from exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11. and the words that i just read to you these are the words of the lord that he is giving to israel when they've come to mount sinai and they've made the covenant with him in the desert right and he's going to give them the law about how they are to live in relationship with him and he gives them these 10 commandments now every christian knows that the ten commandments are very very important right the old testament tells us that the ten commandments were written on two tablets and unlike all the other laws and all the other words of the old testament these ten commandments these two tablets exodus 31 verse 18 says are written with the finger of god right so if you have any doubt about how important they are just keep that in mind these are written with the finger of god they're very very sacred very important and in this commandment about the sabbath day god gives israel two basic commandments first he says that you're to keep the sabbath holy keep it holy right now what does the word holy mean now in our day it kind of has a negative connotation like a lot of people when they hear the word holy they think oh well that's somebody who's you know really really really good and a little uptight right that's that's what people think okay it's true it's true right but in the bible that's not what the word holy means the word holy literally means set apart kadosh is the hebrew word and it has two meanings it means set apart from sin and set apart for god okay so the sabbath day out of the seven days of the week there's this one day that's set apart for god it's sacred right it's holy it belongs to him in a special way all right that's the first part the second part though is the commandment to rest you'll notice that god says you shall not do any work on the sabbath and he's really clear about how just how broad that command is not only you won't do any work but your children you can't make your kids work on sun well i said sunday i'll come back this is sabbath hold on we'll get there in a minute i can't work the kit make the kids work on sabbath or any of your employees or even the animals they should get to rest too once a week right and the reason that exodus 20 that the ten commandments give for this is in six days god made the heavens and the earth so if you go remember go back to the book of genesis chapter one god creates the world in six days and then on the seventh day he blesses it he hallows it he makes it holy set apart and he rests okay so sabbath rest is an imitation of god so if god rests on the seventh day god's people the people of israel are also going to rest from their labors every seventh day right now you might think well why um there's so much that we could go into in terms of the theology of that but just a basic point one of the great temptations of human life and human labor is to make our work into an idol right to make our lives all about work all about what we do what we can accomplish in this world but god gives the commandment to israel to help them realize that this life and our labor in this world although it's good he makes adam put them in the garden to work is not what we're ultimately made for right there's an eternal rest in god that we're ultimately destined for so the sabbath helps us to keep in mind not to make an idol out of our work and to set apart time for our ultimate destiny who is god right to keep that day holy all right final and this is really important if you look at the tablets of the ten commandments this is really the heart of it you'll notice as you walk through them that god in the first set he gives three commandments regarding love of god and then the second set of commandments is regarding love of neighbor the commandments are really all about love they're not just rules they are about how to love god rightly and how to love our neighbor rightly and exodus chapter 20 verse 6 actually says that when god says that those who love me keep my commandments see we tend to think of the commandments as like rules that are imposed on us but they're actually a formula a pattern a way of life for learning how to love how to love god rightly and how to love our neighbors and so what god's teaching israel is this if you really love god then you'll want to spend time with him at least once a week right i mean think about it if you're married for example if your spouse said to you you know i love you honey but i really don't want to spend any time with you or you know i love you but let's not spend more than an hour a week together is that going to fly right does that person really do you really love somebody if you want to give them the bare minimum of your time well no we all know that so god knows that if he's going to teach his people how to love them he also has to teach them how to set apart time for him how to make a certain day of the week sacred one out of the seven all right so that's the old testament roots of arresting one day out of seven fast forward to the new testament another important reason that we honor and honor the lord and rest every seven days is this is important because jesus did it right remember jesus of nazareth was a jew although he was the son of god made man he was also a practicing jew and the new testament tells us that jesus honored the sabbath that he went to synagogue every sabbath and kept it holy so for example in luke chapter 4 verse 16 we read these words and jesus came to nazareth when he had been brought up where he had been brought up and he went to the synagogue as his custom was on the sabbath day all right now you might be thinking well hold on a second i thought jesus did some things on the sabbath that caused people to be you know upset with him and that is true right so there were there are certain exceptions to sabbath rest that jesus himself had to make sure his disciples understood for example healings you know if you read the gospels you'll see on several occasions jesus casts out demons or he heals people on the sabbath another exception would be works of charity or good works right so jesus allows his disciples to feed themselves by plucking heads of grain on the sabbath and he uses even uses the example of saving the life of an animal if it's fallen into the pit a pit he says which one of you wouldn't pull it out of the pit that would be a good work you wouldn't be violating the sabbath if you did that and the reason that he gives for those exceptions is very important he says quote that the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath that's mark chapter 2 verse 28 right in other words the reason the israelites were commanded by god to rest every week and to worship him to keep it holy it's not because god needs it but because we need it right we need it and even more jesus also says that he has the authority over the sabbath he actually says the son of man which is the way he refers himself is the lord of the sabbath now in a first century jewish context that would have been a staggering claim on its part because any jew would have known that the lord of the sabbath according to the old testament is is god and yet jesus commands and con declares that he has a divine authority over the sabbath so the catechism makes clear for us in paragraph 2173 that although the gospels report many incidents that jesus was accused of violating the sabbath he never actually fails to respect the holiness of the day he keeps the sabbath right but he does have these exceptions that flow from charity and from his divine authority now one last point here this is important um essentially if you look at the life of jesus he led the life of a faithful jew he followed the law so he would have gone to synagogue and kept the sabbath holy every single week but what's fascinating is even at the end of his life and his passion and death he honored the sabbath i don't know if he ever thought about this but what day does jesus die on he dies on good friday and although we sometimes forget it from any jew we can tell you that the sabbath begins on friday at sunset a lot of christians think oh sabbath and sunday are the same no no no the sabbath is saturday and in the old testament each day will begin not with not with you know 12 o'clock midnight but with the sunset in the evening okay so sabbath actually would begin on friday night at sunset and then it ends at sunset on saturday night so jesus dies friday afternoon and they put his body in the tomb right before sunset and then what does he do from friday all the way through sabbath he rests even in death he honors the sabbath and then this is going to be the reason why the women have to wait till dawn on sunday to go and find his body and to find the tomb raised okay so as we'll get there in just a second so jesus rests in the sleep of death honors the sabbath even in his passion death and resurrection and that's how holy that's how sacred this day is so here's my question for you if jesus needed to go to synagogue every week if jesus kept every seventh day holy then what do what do we need to do if in his humanity he practiced that then what should we do every week we should imitate christ right that's what the christian is we're all little christ's right we're supposed to imitate jesus and he kept the sabbath holy all right all right now with that said though you might be thinking well hold on dr petry you just said sabbath was saturday but we as catholics as christians we keep sunday holy so when did that shift occur well turn the page now let's look at the topic of sunday worship in the new testament in order to understand why we honor god we keep holy sunday rather than saturday rather than the sabbath it's crucial to look at the new testament accounts of not just the life of jesus but also life of the early church very carefully so the first thing we want to say is the first reason christians in the new covenant honor sunday rather than saturday is because sunday is the day of the resurrection right so if you look at luke chapter 24 here verses one through three you'll notice that luke's description of easter sunday runs like this quote on the first day of the week that sunday at early dawn the women went to the tomb taking the spices which they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they went in they did not find the body okay so um i don't know if you've ever thought about this but the reason they wait all the way till sunday morning is that as observant jews they're going to rest on the sabbath and so the sabbath starts friday night and it ends saturday at sundown but then it's going to be dark right so you're not going to be able to go and take care of the body in the dark so they have to wait all the way till dawn on sunday morning because of the sabbath rest so that's the reason in the new testament we know that jesus rose from the dead on the first day not the seventh day the first day of the week and immediately in the early church we see evidence in the new testament that that began to be the day on which the early church would gather to celebrate what paul calls the lord's supper and what we refer to as the eucharist or would later be the mass so i love there's a great example of this it's in the book of acts the acts of the apostles in acts chapter 19 we find one of our most important clues that the church began gathering on the day of the resurrection on the first day of the week sunday uh both to break the bread of the eucharist right which we call mass and also to have the word of god preached to them and a homily so listen to this story about uh the apostle paul in the book of acts it says this quote on the first day of the week that sunday when we were gathered together to break bread that's luke's term for celebrating the lord's supper paul talked with them intending to depart on the morrow and he prolonged his speech until midnight now there was a young man named utica sitting in the window and he sank into a deep sleep as paul talked still longer ever been to homily like this all right yeah and being overcome by sleep he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead but paul went down and bent over him and embracing him said do not be alarmed for his life is in him and i like to tell my students that's one killer homily all right come on that was good all right i was waiting all day to say that okay yes that is a killer homily no but it's fascinating because you know if you've ever fallen asleep during a homily and i know people have i've never never done anything like that it's okay it's been happening since the very beginnings of the church right but this is a really important text because it gives us a window into worship in the early church what would they do this is likely the night before sunday morning they would gather basically for like a vigil like we do easter vigil where we anticipate the day of sunday by gathering the evening before after sunset they break bread that's the eucharist and then they would have a homily preach the word of god preached to them so this is the practice of the apostles from the beginning sunday eucharist sunday worship um but there's another sunday tradition that's important in the new testament as well and that's the sunday collection this is very important to catholics right got the sunday basket uh in 1st corinthians chapter 16 verse 2 paul again writing to his christian community says quote on the first day of every week that's sunday each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that the contributions need not be made when i come so notice what he's doing he's writing to a community he's not with them and he's telling i'm going to be coming to gather the collection when i arrive but i want you at your weekly sunday gathering to also bring something for the sake of the poor right and for the sake of the church so we have the sunday honoring the resurrection sunday worship and the sunday collection these are part of the new testament now the new testament itself doesn't explain why there's a shift from saturday to sunday in order to do that we have to look at some ancient christian writers known as the early church fathers the early church fathers were christian bishops and priests uh who were living in the second century who would have been taught by the apostles themselves right or who were men who were taught by men who were taught by the apostles in other words one or two generations removed from the age of the apostles themselves and if we look at the second century a.d of the early church we find again very early on the apostolic fathers making very clear that in the new covenant we've now begun to worship not on saturday sabbath the sign of the old creation but sunday the sign of the new creation that began with jesus's resurrection so here's just a couple of quotations the first is from saint ignatius of antioch a martyr who was a disciple of the apostle john himself listen to what saint ignatius says quote those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope no longer keeping the sabbath but the lord's day that's a name for sunday in which our life is blessed by him and by his death and then again saint justin martyr who was a philosopher who converted to christianity in the second century is writing a letter to the roman emperor who's persecuting the pagans and he's trying to explain what they do when they gather to worship because there have been some rumors about the christians like eating human flesh and drinking blood like cannibalism the pagans didn't understand what they were doing when they got together to eat the flesh and drink the blood of this man jesus so justin writes a letter to explain it and in the context of that letter to the emperor he says this quote we all gather on the day of the sun that's of course sunday for it's the first day when god separating matter from darkness made the world and on this same day jesus christ our savior rose from the dead now pause there this is a really important point on justin's part justin grew up in a jewish context in ancient syria and he would have known that for any first century jew when they read the book of genesis and they read the seven days of creation they would have read they would have known that when it says in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and you know god said let there be light and it was there was light and it was the first day any jew would have known that that day in genesis 1 is sunday okay so from a jewish perspective sunday is the day god made the world and so justin's saying is here is that just as god made the old creation on sunday so now he makes the new creation in jesus resurrection on the same day right the same day so both of those are now being honored by christians when they celebrate every single sunday and that's why in catholic teaching the church says to us once again from the catechism of the catholic church that the reason we worship on sunday is because sunday is the fulfillment of the sabbath it's the fulfillment it's what the sabbath was a shadow of it's what the sabbath was pointing to the catechism says quote for christians sunday's ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath the celebration of sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to god an outward visible public and regular worship end quote in other words what the catechism saying here is that we catholics and christians in general who keep sunday we we don't we're not throwing away the ten commandments right we keep the commandment to keep the sabbath holy but we also recognize that the sabbath was a sign it was a shadow it was like the animal sacrifices in the old testament that pointed forward to the fulfillment that jesus would bring in his passion death and resurrection so we when we keep the sunday holy we are recognizing that sunday is the fulfillment of the sabbath we're not doing away with the old testament the ten commandments we are keeping them and fulfilling them notice also too there that line this is really important the catechism says that the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to worship god long before god appeared to the israelites on mount sinai right and gave them the the commandment to keep the sabbath day he had already written into the human heart and into the fabric of creation itself a need for us to worship him every seventh day to set apart time for him sacred time to rest from our earthly laborers and to focus our hearts and minds on honoring and worshiping him right and i just i don't know about you but if you've ever gone through a season in your life i can testify where you you stopped going to mass um a lot of times sunday is different from the other days of the week i can actually name there are like a few songs that i used to i know where just secular singers will talk about like the sunday blues or how they can't seem to make it through sunday there's something about sunday where it's supposed to be this day to relax but you you feel a certain emptiness like why is that what's the root cause of the the sunday blues i would suggest to you it's because deep in our hearts god has written a desire a need to worship him and we can't fill it unless we set that time apart for him right and fulfill that longing to be with the one who made us and to give worship and honor to the one who made us i mean after all you know if an obligation means i'm indebted to someone like a much obliged who are we more in debt to than god i mean what has he given us what gift has he given us well first of all there's the gift of creation itself the whole universe sorry there's the gift of our lives right and then there's a gift of eternal life the gift of redemption and salvation right now if i gave you like a million dollars and you didn't even say thank you we would all recognize that something was off there right well god has given us much more than that and so what the catechism is pointing here is our need to give thanks right to give honor and glory to god on a regular basis and publicly too as witnesses to everyone else to what the lord of all has done for us and for all human beings anyway just a little thought there okay now with that said um so there are some the new testament foundations what about the church's teaching on this in this point i wanted to highlight another element here about sunday worship and this is the five precepts of the church i know when i was growing up i don't remember learning the five precepts but this is like the bare minimum of what we do as christians as catholics in order to kind of stay in a right relationship with god so the five precepts are sunday worship mass every sunday right eucharist at least once a year confession at least once a year fasting on good friday and ash wednesday the days of fasting and abstinence and then also giving material needs to support the church so you know contributing financially and in other ways to the life of the church those are the five precepts and the first precept the most basic thing we're required to do as catholics is go to mass every sunday so here's the what the church says about this necessary minimum right this is the catechism of the catholic church paragraph 2041 and i'm quoting again it says this the first precept is you shall attend mass on sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor i'll come back to the rest a little later the precept of participating in the mass is satisfied by assistance at a mass which is celebrated anywhere in a catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day okay okay so let me unpack that for just a minute because this is actually important um so notice the first thing we want to highlight here is that the requirement the obligation the precept here is not actually to receive communion every week right that's you that's an option you don't you're not required to receive communion more than once a year as a catholic what you're required to do is participate in the mass to worship god at mass that's the first point uh second notice it's not just any kind of worship but it has to be in a catholic rite okay so it doesn't fulfill the sunday obligation to go and worship in a different denomination or in a sect of some like a christian sect that that's that's not a fulfillment of the obligation it's to worship in a catholic rite every sunday either on the holy day or number three on the evening of the preceding day now this one kind of confuses people right so most catholics know today i can go to sunday morning mass or i could go to evening mass on saturday right now why do we do that well because we don't really care about keeping the ten commandments we just like to fudge no no no no this again whenever you see something weird in catholicism it almost always goes back to judaism okay so i told you in the old testament when did the liturgical day begin of the sabbath it began in the evening on friday and so the church to this day recognizes that in a real sense sunday begins saturday evening right so that's that fulfills the obligation to worship on that holy day of sunday according to the teaching of the church and this has really been the practice y'all of christians for thousands of years in fact there's a beautiful letter on sunday worship by pope john paul ii it's called dies dominique the day of the lord and as i was reading through it and preparing for this presentation i found a section on the sunday obligation where he talks about how in the early church in the 4th century a.d right so a long time ago the roman emperors were persecuting the christians and making it basically illegal for them to attend the eucharist for them to attend sunday worship and if they were caught they could be put to death for the equivalent of what we would call going to mass and so how did they respond to that listen to the words of pope john paul ii he said this many of these christians accepted death rather than miss the sunday eucharist wow he gives some quotes from some of these martyrs these were in north africa in the fourth century this is what they said quote without fear of any kind we have celebrated the lord's supper because it cannot be missed that is our law they said we cannot live without the lord's supper and then one martyr he says as she confessed her faith she said quote yes i went to the assembly and i celebrated the lord's supper with my brothers and sisters because i am a christian wow now think about that i these these ancient christians would die rather than miss mass and yet for many of us today we don't want to go to mass just because well it's inconvenient so the question we have to ask ourselves is are you a catholic or not are you a christian or not if so then keep sunday holy i mean if our forefathers and four mothers in the faith were willing to die to celebrate this to worship god and receive the eucharist how much more should we be not just um obligated but excited right privileged to honor the lord every week after all i'm not good at math but i did the math before i came so there are uh at least let me check 168 hours in every week and god's asking you for one for one that's the minimum why not give it he knows you need it and deep down you know you need it too all right third and final section all right so we've looked at sabbath in the old testament we looked at sunday worship in the new testament but what about the sunday obligation itself i mean what about this law of the church um and in particular where does this law come from and what's the reasoning for it well in order to answer that question i want to go back again to the quotation that i opened the presentation with from the catechism of the catholic church the official teaching of the church on the sunday obligation let's listen again to what it says and then we'll kind of unpack the reasoning behind it it says and i quote the sunday eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all christian practice for this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the eucharist on days of obligation unless excused for a serious reason for example illness the care of infants or dispensed by their own pastor and here's the line that caught my attention when i first read it as a college student those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin end quote that's paragraph 2181 of the catechism all right so what's going on here why does the church teach this was i right when i said it's just to get people forced people to come to mass or is there some deeper reason obviously there's a deeper reason in order to see we really need to go back not just to the teaching of the church but to the words of jesus christ himself so first point the reason the church teaches that worshiping god on sunday is the foundation of our christian life right think about that that's really strong if you try to build a house and you don't put a slab down if you don't put a foundation down what's going to happen in the house it's going to fall apart it's going to collapse okay so the reason the church teaches that sunday worship is the foundation of all christian practice is because what jesus himself said about the eucharist in his famous bread of life discourse in john chapter six now let me pause i could talk about john chapter six for hours and hours in fact i have talked about it for hours and hours wrote a whole book about it called jesus and the jewish roots of the eucharist so if you want to go into more depth there you can look at that we also did a series called why we worship where i looked at kind of a broader understanding of where in scripture we get the foundations for our practice of of the eucharist and of the mass you can look at that but for now i just want to highlight what jesus says here in relation to the sunday obligation listen to his words about the eucharist quote amen amen i say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me or remains in me you can translate it either way and i in him okay so the first reason the mass is so vital to our lives on a regular basis is because the eucharist isn't just a symbol but it's the body blood soul and divinity of jesus christ it's his real presence not just in the spirit but in his body as he says here my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink and if you want to remain in jesus which i assume you do and if you want jesus to remain in you which i assume you do what do you have to do jesus says you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood otherwise you have no life in you we all know this right we get up every day what's one of the first things we do we eat breakfast right why because if we don't eat and we keep not eating we're going to get weak and then eventually we will die the same thing's true in the spiritual order as in the natural order right we need the bread and wine of eternal life to feed us and to sustain us not just every now and then but on a regular basis right weekly at the minimum and daily if possible so jesus's words are the primary reason for saying this about the eucharist all right well you might think okay well that's what jesus says what though about the obligation to go to mass that the church teaches i mean where does she get the authority to do this and of course the answer is also jesus okay so if we look at the question of the obligation or dispensation from sunday worship we need to go back to the gospels and realize that jesus who had that divine authority over the sabbath didn't keep it to himself he gave it to his apostles and then they gave it to their successors the bishops you can listen to this in matthew chapter 18 verse 18 for example jesus says to the apostles truly i say to you whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven notice he's not just talking to peter here catholics like to point out that he said that to peter but he also said that to the other 12 apostles because he gave that authority to bind in other words to make something required that's what that jewish word means or to lose which means to make something permitted he gave that binding and losing authority to his apostles so that in luke 10 verse 16 he said to the apostles he could really say he who hears you hears me and he who rejects you rejects me that's that's the authority that the pope and the bishops as successors to peter and the apostles really have they have the power to bind and they have the power to lose and that's why in the church's law it's very clear i've got a quote here that a diocesan bishop who is by the way a successor of the apostles right a catholic bishop you have a catholic bishop he was ordained by a man who was ordained by a man who was ordained by a man who was ordained by a man who was ordained all the way back by one of the one of the apostles apostolic succession so the church says that a diocesan bishop whenever he judges that it contributes to the spiritual good of his flock is able to dispense the faithful from the universal and particular disciplinary laws issued for his territory or his subjects by the supreme authority of the church that's the reason that for example in the wake of the pandemic many bishops and the pope himself dispense the faithful they loose them from the obligation because they receive that authority from jesus christ it's it's that simple but it's a very important point for us to make otherwise people could be confused right like how can it be a sin for me to miss mass one sunday and then not ascend the next day or the next week well the answer is because on one sunday you were bound and on the next one you were loosed right and this one you were obliged and in this one you were permitted and that authority comes from jesus christ himself through the bishops the successors of the apostles all right so that's the second point third point here you may still be wondering because i know i did well all right i get that but why is deliberately missing mass a grave sin i mean that sounds serious so why does the church teach that where does that come from what does that mean for our lives so just a quick explanation of this i'd encourage you to actually read the section in the catechism of the catholic church on sin as well as on sunday it's really well done and very clear if you want to go into more depth but let me just give you a quick overview answer in order to understand what this means we need to remember that according to the bible there are two kinds of sin there's sin that's not mortal and then there's sin that's mortal saint john actually says that in first john chapter 5 verse 16 through 17. two kinds of sin mortal and not mortal we usually call those mortal and venial all right so a venial sin is something that wounds the life of god in in your heart in the soul right it weakens it okay but it doesn't kill it it doesn't destroy it a mortal sin according to the catechism is something that destroys the life of god in us by a grave violation of god's law that's what the language of grave means i always like to tell my students if you want to know what a grave sin is it's one that will put you in the grave right spiritually okay it's very serious right it's the difference between illness and death that's the difference between venial and mortal sin now the conditions for committing a mortal sin they have three conditions this is important it has to be grave right grave matter you have to do it with full knowledge and you have to do it with deliberate consent right you have to consent to it and if you're wondering what grave matter is the catechism tells us it's specified by the ten commandments right so this is a nice guide so things like committing adultery that's a grave sin right murder is a grave sin right and in this case to not keep the sabbath holy that's the first tablet right is a grave sin it's one of those it's one of the ten commandments now i'll never forget the first time i was lecturing i was a young professor i i was i just got started teaching i had a class full of undergrads we got to exodus chapter 20 and i was so excited to tell them about explain the commandments and what they were about and how they were about the love of god and love of neighbor so i was going through all of this and i explained to them if you look at sabbath day there this is why we worship on sunday and this is why the church teaches that it's a grave sin if you if you miss mass deliberately so i was all excited i look up and i can see all these like white faces like you know people look kind of mortified wait what it's a grave sin it's a mortal sin um and i remember saying oh no no yeah okay so maybe some of you didn't know this uh the church says that if you're ignorant like unintentionally ignorant that can diminish your culpability right because you have to have grave matter not just great matter but full knowledge and deliberate consent and i don't forget this one guy raised his hand he's like dr petrie then why'd you tell us i was like okay i think you i think you missed the point here okay i'm telling you because i want you to have life and have it abundantly like the way jesus told the truth right because the truth will set you free the truth will set you free right so on the one hand the bad news is that to deliberately miss mass is is a grave sin that's the teaching of the church it is breaking one of the commandments the good news is that if you didn't know right right if you were just ignorant and a lot of people are i was i didn't understand that can diminish your culpability but the even better news is we have a sacrament designed to deal with grave sin it's called the sacrament of reconciliation the sacrament of confession right all you have to do is go to confession right truly repent and bring that sin before the lord and he's longing to forgive that and to restore that life to your soul right this is the gospel it's the good news of redemption and of forgiveness and that's why this confession and the forgiveness of a grave sin is normally accomplished the catechism says in the sacrament of reconciliation all right so let me close here just a few thoughts on the obligation one thing i want to highlight is according to teaching the church it's important to remember that the sunday obligation isn't just for going to mass that's the bare minimum but the church also calls us to rest on sunday listen to these words from the catechism quote on sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are to refrain from gaging and work or activities that hinder the worship of god the worship owed to god family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation of sunday rest we've already talked about examples of that like a serious illness right or the care of an infant or if you if you're homebound for example that that you're dispensed from that obligation if you're not able to attend you're not required to attend the church is very she's a good mother she she knows how to make exceptions right when they're legitimate but it says the faithful should also see too that legitimate excuses don't lead to habits that prejudice that are prejudicial religion family life and health okay and again the reason the church says this is because we need not only to worship god but you know what we need to rest as well we need to avoid the temptation of making an idol out of work and all for me personally i'd say it's about 20 years ago now my wife and i for what it's worth in our own family started not only going to mass every sunday but also really trying our best to rest on that day and to avoid work you know what at first it was really difficult it was really like for me i had to decide no theology on sunday i'm not reading theology on sunday i don't know this is a big temptation for a lot of people right they just die in a read theology on sunday but i decided that's my work so i'm not going to do it on sunday and you know what what i found was i actually got more accomplished in the rest of the week because i was refreshed and also it created a space for just restoring relationships and enjoying the gift of life and family and now if you try to take my sunday rest away from me over my dead body would you get it because we need it like we really need it it's it's become something that's the heart of our of our own family life it's changed everything really so i want to close then with the words of christ all right so why the sunday obligation well i'll go back to jesus um not only in the gospel john chapter 6 but the gospel john chapter 15 i think he gives us a clue with the image of the vine and the branches remember what he said there to the apostles i am the vine you are the branches he who abides in me and i in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing not just a little nothing if a man does not abide in me he is cast forth as a branch and withers and the branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burned wow that's an image of eternal separation from god by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as the father has loved me so i have loved you abide in my love how do i abide in the love of jesus he told us in john 6 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood does what abides in me right and look that's the reality of it when you love someone you want to be with them you want them to be with you you want to spend time together and a lot of people will say oh well you know i can worship god in the woods or i can worship god on the boat or and you can that's true that's true because god is omnipresent he's everywhere in spirit but the son of god who became man is only present not just in spirit but in body in one place and that's in the tabernacle that's in the eucharist right and you know what when you when you really love somebody you don't want to be present with them just in spirit you want to be present with them what in the body right you want to be in their bodily presence that's what the eucharist is and so jesus is saying look if you want to remain in my love you have to abide in me and if you don't abide in me if you don't remain in me you're like a branch that gets cut off from the vine what happens when the branch gets cut off it might look like it's alive for a little while but eventually it's going to shrivel up it's going to die and then it's cast into the fire so we all understand that this is the language of love and i would just end by challenging with you think of it this way if you could be with someone you loved think of someone who's passed away who's died that you love if you could be with them one hour a week would you do it would you go well jesus died for you and he loves you more than you can possibly imagine and he's asking you he's inviting you to spend just one hour a week with him in the celebration of the mass in the sacrifice that he offered for your sake and for mine on calvary and then brought to life on easter sunday and the resurrection because that's what sunday is sunday worship and sunday rest is a little foretaste of not just his resurrection but our resurrection on the last day and if we go every sunday and we worship him and we practice resting in him and one day we'll worship him and rest with him forever in eternity amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen lord jesus thank you for the gift of sunday thank you for the gift of sunday worship of sunday rest and for the gift of the eucharist we pray that you would grant us the grace through the teaching of scripture and the teaching of the church to truly not just accept the sunday obligation but to live the sunday privilege of being able to be with you to hear your word to eat your flesh and drink your blood and to abide in you so that you might abide in us glory be to the father and to the son and of the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen thank you all thanks everybody [Music] you

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Length: 54min 31sec (3271 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 23 2021