Condemned to Hell for missing Mass?

[ronhmason]

Is it true that if you miss Mass through your own fault (too lazy to go or something else to do for example) that if you die before you get to confession, you’re condemned to hell? I am a convert to Catholicism and realize that the more I study it, (I have read one version of the Catholic Bible) the more I’m convinced that according to the Catholics, it’s very difficult to get to Heaven. So, is it really that difficult or has it all been complicated to the point that it seems difficult?

 

[Spudbynight]

Missing Mass is a mortal sin.

This is from the Catechism :

To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell.

 

[1ke]

Is it true that if you miss Mass through your own fault (too lazy to go or something else to do for example) that if you die before you get to confession, you’re condemned to hell?

Maybe.

If you were sorry for your sin and were unable to confess, God knows your heart and that you were sorry. If we intend to confess a sin and die before we are able, God knows this.

If you were not sorry, and not intending to seek out the sacrament of reconciliation, that is another matter.

I would suggest that your question above is quite legalistic. The Church is not a set of rules, although so many people try to fit it into that box.

I can recommend you read the catechism on the sections regarding the Sacrament of Reconciliation, sin, contrition, God’s mercy, and “final things”-- Heaven, Purgatory, Hell.

 

[ronhmason]

Maybe, I should have asked my first question a different way. If you miss Mass and don’t consider it a mortal sin, are you condemned to Hell?

 

[Spudbynight]

Maybe, I should have asked my first question a different way. If you miss Mass and don’t consider it a mortal sin, are you condemned to Hell?

Yes, for being a protestant.

(That was tongue in cheek)

Catholics don’t decide on an individual basis what is or isn’t a mortal sin. Missing Mass without due cause (ill health or similar) IS a mortal sin. If you are not repentant when you die then you go to Hell.

 

[ronhmason]

So I guess that means that if non-Catholics are familiar with this Catholic teaching about missing Mass (Church) and choose to ignore it, then they’re condemned to hell. Is that the Catholic Church’s stand on this?

 

[Spudbynight]

No.

It is all about rejecting God. If an individual knows that the Chuch is the one true Church of Jesus Christ then this applies to them.

For those who are outside the Church by no fault of their own, i.e. those raised in another faith, this doesn’t apply. It is what St. Thomas Aquinas terms Invincible Ignorance.

There is a lot of specific detail about it in Lumen Gentium.

 

[eonporter]

It depends.

I guess most people who ignore the teachings of the Church do so because they ignore the nature of the Church itself. In other words, they don’t reject the teachings for what they are, but on the basis of their own faulty perceptions of the Church itself.

You can take for example a child that might have been poisoned her whole life with anti-catholic beliefs, and turns out to be an atheist as an adult. No one can say that this person would be 100% accountable for her actions, since her ability to follow the faith has been severely impaired due to the circumstances of her childhood.

In this case, the Church teachings are very clear: invincible ignorance might be one of those cases in which people can be saved, even if they don’t fulfill the church commandments.

 

[OraLabora]

Only God can condemn us to hell.

When we sin mortally, we separate ourselves from God. How truly sorry we are if we die, is between one’s self and God.

If we go to sacramental confession, we show our sorrow for having offended God and ask for His forgiveness. Since He instituted the sacrament, it’s a guarantee that we will receive His forgiveness if we seek confession with true contrition and a firm resolve to avoid sinning again.

If for some reason we don’t make it, say we fall ill and die before we can make it to confession, God can know how sorry you were. He can read our hearts. No man, not even the Pope, can place limits on what God can or cannot do. He can only show us a sure path to reconciliation. Outside that path, it’s entirely up to God and how He reads your heart.

Also, whether missing Mass is sinning mortally or not, is dependent on circumstances. We know it is “grave matter”. But there are also two other requirements to be filled: that you know it is grave matter, and that you miss Mass willingly. Otherwise it is venial. If you accidentally slept in and missed the only Mass available, for instance, or if your car broke down on the way it would not be mortal. Nor would it be mortal if you have the flu and don’t want to spread the virus to others. You can also get a dispensation from your priest for certain circumstances, such as shift work that prevents you from going to Mass without incurring undue hardship.

But if you said “I’d rather go fishing on Sunday morning” and go fishing, then you have full consent of the will and have chosen to separate yourself from God.

 

[1ke]

Maybe, I should have asked my first question a different way. If you miss Mass and don’t consider it a mortal sin, are you condemned to Hell?

Again, the answer is: MAYBE

You are trying to get a yes or no where there is none.

Purposely missing Mass is grave matter. Again, I suggest you read the Catechism section on sin. It will give you guidance on the necessary elements for mortal sin. Grave matter is only one of them.

 

[1ke]

So I guess that means that if non-Catholics are familiar with this Catholic teaching about missing Mass (Church) and choose to ignore it, then they’re condemned to hell.

Non-Catholics are not bound by the ecclesial law requirements of the Catholic Church.

Is that the Catholic Church’s stand on this?

No

 

[Chatter163]

So I guess that means that if non-Catholics are familiar with this Catholic teaching about missing Mass (Church) and choose to ignore it, then they’re condemned to hell. Is that the Catholic Church’s stand on this?

Are you trying to be argumentative here? All of your posts have had a particularly negartive tone. You sound like you are looking for a “gotcha” moment about Catholic doctrine (a “Surely this cannot possibly be right…?” approach), rather than sincerely trying to learn and understand.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

the more I study it, (I have read one version of the Catholic Bible) the more I’m convinced that according to the Catholics, it’s very difficult to get to Heaven. So, is it really that difficult or has it all been complicated to the point that it seems difficult?

We should never assume that Salvation will be easy.

Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7:

13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.

14 How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few…

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’

23 Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you.* Depart from me, you evildoers.’

 

[Glomung]

Let’s try to avoid the legalism and look at this in another way.
In one of H. Beam Piper’s fuzzy novels a group of criminals is arrested for using the locals as slaves, the crime being faginy, the judge condemned them to death saying:

“We do not condemn you for what you have done. We condemn you because you are the type of people who do these things.”

And so it is with sin. You are not condemned for your activities, or lack of activities, but for the corrupt nature of your soul which promotes these behaviors.
It is what you are, not what you do, that condemns you.

Just as Jesus said about lust, being lustful without the act of fornication is still the same sin.

10After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand.11“It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

15Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.”16Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also?17“Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?18“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.19“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.20“These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”

 

[R_C]

Is it true that if you miss Mass through your own fault (too lazy to go or something else to do for example) that if you die before you get to confession, you’re condemned to hell?

It is in fact **incredibly easy **to go to heaven, for we are all created by God with an immortal soul meant to go there, and the Son of God underwent what He underwent for our sake, so that everyone who wants to go to Heaven can go there if he wants.

Mortal sin is a grave injury to God done with full knowledge and deliberate consent. Holy Church has been given authority by Christ to teach, and when Holy Church commands that the faithful attend Holy Mass on Sunday (or Saturday Vigil) and every Holy Day of Obligation, she does so by the authority of God. To disobey out of laziness or preferring to do something else is not to offend the Church, it is to offend and challenge the living God. If a messenger of the king comes and tells me: there is a feast every Sunday to commemorate the King’s wedding, you have to come. Yet I don’t go, because I don’t respect the messenger or I don’t think his order binds me to obey, I am actually offending the king.

Any mortal sin, by its nature, is us rejecting God. If we die, such choice becomes eternal, meaning outside of time. We cannot change our mind after death. What is most hurtful is this - and it is a great mystery: after death, the soul that rejected God and finds itself in Hell is aware that the living God still loves her of an infinite love and is always open to forgive, and that she, the soul, is the one who rejects God, not vice versa. That God did not judge her and condemn her, but, rather, that she judged herself and condemned herself, despite the fact that God in fact came to live among us and told us very clearly: I do not judge anyone. I came not to condemn the world, but so that the world would be saved through me. I do not call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

We have a problem: we don’t quite understand what the Church is. The more we learn about Her, the Spouse of Christ, our Mother and Teacher, the more we understand why Her precepts are so important for our salvation. And also we don’t quite seem to understand what Holy Mass is, especially on the Lord’s Day, in English called “Sunday”. Perhaps if our eyes were unveiled and we saw the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the altar, prostrated, and the seraphim at the side, covering their eyes in awe, and Christ Crucified on the altar, and our own guardian angels bringing up to heaven our prayers, and the entire heavenly court around us, angels and saints, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, perhaps then we’d understand why it is such an offense to not attend Holy Mass when we are called to be there.

That is not to say that if a person has serious, grave reasons that prevent him from attending, he is in mortal sin. There are even dispensations for truly serious ongoing circumstances (ex. an illness that forces us to be in bed). And the Lord is so humble that He commanded His Church to bring Him to you in such a circumstance…the living God comes to you if you cannot go to Him…and will you then prefer to do something else other than going to Him when you are invited to do so?

Going to heaven is easy, for Christ, truly God but also truly man, showed us how. He shared with us something that was unique between Him and His Father: the Holy Spirit. Through this ineffable gift, we become more than men: we become partakers in the divine nature! Christ not only did this, but revealed that which perhaps is the greatest of all divine mysteries, and the highest of all truths: that this grace fulfills the law! So each and everyone of us, baptized in Christ and purified through Reconciliation as needed, can do all that is needed by simply loving God and our neighbor with the purest, simplest, self-giving unconditional love that forgives everything and expects nothing in return!

I suggest you read “Story of a Soul” by St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (“Doctor of Love” is her title). Her little way to holiness is a masterpiece that greatly helps souls who consider that there should be an easy way to do God’s will and finally be with Him in heaven.

 

[aprilfloyd]

Are you trying to be argumentative here? All of your posts have had a particularly negartive tone. You sound like you are looking for a “gotcha” moment about Catholic doctrine (a “Surely this cannot possibly be right…?” approach), rather than sincerely trying to learn and understand.

I don’t think it is a gotcha moment. I was raised catholic and try to understand it, but it is baffling to me as an adult as it was as a boy. I can’t see how anyone would go to hell for not going to a religious service.

 

[englishredrose]

Is it true that if you miss Mass through your own fault (too lazy to go or something else to do for example) that if you die before you get to confession, you’re condemned to hell? I am a convert to Catholicism and realize that the more I study it, (I have read one version of the Catholic Bible) the more I’m convinced that according to the Catholics, it’s very difficult to get to Heaven. So, is it really that difficult or has it all been complicated to the point that it seems difficult?

Hmm, why then have you/are converting to a faith that you thought if you skip Mass then you would go to Hell?

I think if you thought about your own reasoning there, you would know that isn’t actually true and just skipping Mass and happend to die before you got to confession… you wouldn’t go to Hell. Our God is a loving God. Not a God who punishes for the sake of it.

Relax, there is a lot of stuff out there about Heaven and Hell and the only one of us who actually can judge isn’t us at all but God. So whatever anyone tells you if they try to say they judge etc… yeh they may judge that you wouldn’t get to Heaven but God is our real Judge there and Believe and Trust in Him. It helps when you love him too. It is very simple but we don’t like to think it is, but in essence it really is simple:thumbsup:

 

[SundaysLight]

Jesus died so that even the very worst of us could have Eternal Life. If you were to pick up a newspaper and read (just like a sinner like me) all the people in that broadsheet who have in some way offended God, His Mercy can reach any of them, no one is excluded. God wills that everyone be saved (the very worst of us) and come to the knowledge of the truth. If you were to only say, Jesus I trust in You before you died, you would receive grace from His Infinite Mercy. Can a soul in hell have grace? It would seem not because we are taught that Hell is the absence of God. So even that brief cry out to God, would save the soul.

All through the Old Testament God relented and had Mercy on the Israelites for e.g Nineveh. “For God is slow to anger and rich in Mercy.” I agree with the poster who said; there is too much legalism in the church. Why would God who is meant to be love incarnate send a soul to hell for the simplest mistakes. I do not believe that hell is littered with people who missed Mass on a Sunday and did not confess. If God sends people to hell for that and similar mistakes, there is no hope for any of us. That would seem to me that God can’t stand humankind and is only waiting for the littlest opportunity to send people to hell. I could not believe in a God like that.

Apt that it is said, God created Man in His own Imagine and we returned the compliment.

 

[aprilfloyd]

Hmm, why then have you/are converting to a faith that you thought if you skip Mass then you would go to Hell?

I think if you thought about your own reasoning there, you would know that isn’t actually true and just skipping Mass and happend to die before you got to confession… you wouldn’t go to Hell. Our God is a loving God. Not a God who punishes for the sake of it.

Relax, there is a lot of stuff out there about Heaven and Hell and the only one of us who actually can judge isn’t us at all but God. So whatever anyone tells you if they try to say they judge etc… yeh they may judge that you wouldn’t get to Heaven but God is our real Judge there and Believe and Trust in Him. It helps when you love him too. It is very simple but we don’t like to think it is, but in essence it really is simple:thumbsup:

My sister died of cancer after a painful time - catholics in the family said she was in hell as she did not go to mass and was not a practising catholic. I find this side of the church abhorrent and cruel. No one is going to hell. There is no hell.

 

[cargau]

So I guess that means that if non-Catholics are familiar with this Catholic teaching about missing Mass (Church) and choose to ignore it, then they’re condemned to hell. Is that the Catholic Church’s stand on this?

Missing Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day is NOT a mortal sin (necessarily). It is, however, grave matter. It’s not about just “missing” Mass. It is the injustice that is condoned by not honoring God as he deserves. Still, full knowledge of the action and complicity of the will must be attached to the sin in order for it to be considered mortal.

No human can or should attempt to determine how a soul will ultimately be judged. That is reserved for God, alone. Committing actions that are defined as grave matter, however, does put the soul at risk and therefore should be avoided.