At what point is showing up to Mass too late?

[ccmcmg]

I’ve even seen people arrive not only after the homily, but during the Consecration! And this is not during a weekday Mass but on a Sunday.

At that point, they should just wait until the next Mass (the one we attend is not the last one in the day). They’ve completely avoided the readings and the teaching, and have only come to consume the Eucharist. To me, this is very sad and seems to come from a consumerist mindset. I’m not Catholic yet, but I would imagine it is best to prepare oneself to receive the Eucharist during the Mass, and to ponder the teachings, before coming up to receive.

I understand that sometimes we can be unavoidably late for Mass, but that late? Arriving when the Consecration has already started seems a bit ridiculous for a Sunday.

I arrived very late for Mass around a year ago. On my long drive back to my hometown, I encountered car trouble, and had to stop twice, delaying me by about an hour to 90 minutes. I still arrived about 35 minutes late; this was the first Sunday Mass I encountered in which they would be about to begin Communion already at :35 past the hour! I knew of no other Mass later than the one I was rushing to get to, and it would not have been prudent to do so on my phone while driving!

**

Dr. Edward Peters just recently wrote a post about this: canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/how-much-of-mass-can-i-miss-you-know-and-it-still-counts/

He argues that what’s more important is the reasoning for being late, and the intention of those being late over how much of Mass has been missed. A person who arrives just at the Consecration because of an emergency at home has “met” the obligation to assist at Mass while the person who arrives even one minute late to Mass because he was sitting in his car in the church parking lot listening to a sports game on the radio has not met his obligation.**

 

[buc_fan33]

I, too, agree with Dr. Peters. Mass begins when the priest says, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and it ends when he or the deacon says, “Mass is ended, go in peace,” (or any of the other three dismissals).

The reason the Church does not explicitly say, “If you arrive at this time, you’ve fulfilled your obligation, but not at this time,” is because she does not want to promote legalism. Fundamentally, Christianity is about a relationship. Meeting the “obligation” is the minimum we are required to do. No offense meant to the OP, but this question, and it comes up a lot, sort of sounds like a kid who asks his teacher, “What’s the least amount of work I have to do in this class to get a D?” The teacher would be taken aback by such a question and probably would not even dignify it with a response.

In other words, intentions matter. There is a huge difference between someone who is capable of A work that puts in minimal effort in order to “earn” a D, and pass the class and someone who struggles mightily in school, works as hard as he or she possibly can, and gets a D (I’m reminded from the opening scene of the classic movie, Tommy Boy…“Alright! A D! I passed!!!”).

Likewise, there is a world of difference between someone who is just doing the minimum, getting by, strolling in to the last Mass of the day sometime during the homily, and someone who has one sick child, two more children under the age of two, a flat tire, and gets stuck behind a train–and walks in at the same time. We don’t know the reasons why someone is late. We don’t know if someone is person A or person B. God does though. Someday, it will all come out.

I just hope that God does not reciprocate to those who fall into the former category. Can you imagine this scenario playing out? This same individual (the person who just goes through the motions) is in a serious car accident, and his life is hanging in the balance. He begins praying, asking God to save him. God the Father hears the prayer, calls out to Jesus and says, “Son, I just laid down to take a nap. I had to deal with the mudslide in India, and then there was the earthquake in San Francisco. Oh, and the climbing party that got into trouble on Everist. Can you take this one?” Jesus, Himself recovering from a busy day at the office, sighs, and says, “Hmmm…I had to deal with the disease in Africa, the Midwesterners wanted rain for their crops today, I had about 100 million people ask me to win the lottery, I think I’ll let the Holy Spirit deal with this one.” The Holy Spirit, hearing this, “Says, yeah, I had kind of a light day today. I just had a few random pleas for world peace and what not. I’ll take care of it. But, the game’s almost over…he can hang on for a few minutes.”

A few minutes pass by, and the Holy Spirit descends on the scene of the car accident, stays with the injured man, and guides the hands of the paramedics. When the injured man is loaded into the ambulance, the Holy Spirit turns to him and says, “OK…I hope everything is ok. I’ve got to run though. It’s a double header today, and the second game is about to start. Good luck at the hospital!”

“But, but,” the man pleads, “please don’t leave me! I’m scared. There’s more to be done!” And the Holy Spirit responds, “I know, but the thing is, I have to leave a little early today. Like I said, big game and all. And, besides, my car is going to be blocked in if I hang around much longer. After the game gets over, I’ll send your guardian angel down. Until then, just sit tight, ok?”

Obviously, this is satire. But, we who want God to do everything for us, at the exact moment when we want it, often times arrive late and leave early.

 

[chopstocky]

TruetoFaith:

A few years ago, a good priest told our group when he was asked “How often can a Catholic layperson receive communion in a day?”

The answer was: Twice, but one of those times had to be in the context of a Mass. One of those times could be attending say, the Saturday morning daily Mass and then later that afternoon going to a Catholic wedding. That would be a circumstance where communion could be received twice in one day.

Same goes for funerals, but I am not sure about taking the Eucharist to a home bound person.

So going to Saturday morning daily mass and then going to the 5pm vigil mass (for Sunday) and receiving the Eucharist is not acceptable?

 

[Elizium23]

I, too, agree with Dr. Peters. Mass begins when the priest says, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and it ends when he or the deacon says, “Mass is ended, go in peace,” (or any of the other three dismissals).

Actually, it ends when the celebrant venerates the altar with a kiss and follows that with a profound bow to the altar.

 

[ccmcmg]

So going to Saturday morning daily mass and then going to the 5pm vigil mass (for Sunday) and receiving the Eucharist is not acceptable?

You can receive twice in one (calendar) day, as long as the second time is in the context of Mass; both can be Mass (even twice on Sunday). The first time can be in a different setting (Communion service), or a Mass, but the 2nd one must always be Mass in which one is participating.

So you could go Saturday morning, Saturday evening (or two evenings, or two mornings, but you couldn’t receive Saturday evening if you’ve already received twice on Saturday), Sunday morning and Sunday evening (or later Sunday morning). Etc, etc etc.

 

[chopstocky]

Whew! Thanks for the clarification!

 

[Elizium23]

You can receive twice in one (calendar) day, as long as the second time is in the context of Mass; both can be Mass (even twice on Sunday). The first time can be in a different setting (Communion service), or a Mass, but the 2nd one must always be Mass in which one is participating.

So you could go Saturday morning, Saturday evening (or two evenings, or two mornings, but you couldn’t receive Saturday evening if you’ve already received twice on Saturday), Sunday morning and Sunday evening (or later Sunday morning). Etc, etc etc.

You can receive three times if the second is in a Mass and the third time is Viaticum for the dying.