Missing Mass= Mortal Sin?

[HabemusFrancis]

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

I realize that missing mass on purpose is a bad and selfish thing, but is it really a mortal sin equal to serial adulterery and mass murder?

 

[TheRealJuliane]

That’s the wrong way to think about it.

By missing Mass without a sufficient reason, you are saying to God, “You’re just not that important to me.” You could be breaking the 1st commandment or several others. You are also part of the Body of Christ and you are to be in community with your fellow Catholics - we don’t believe that you can do Catholicism all on your own.

The proper question is, “What would KEEP me from going to Mass, what would KEEP ME AWAY from Jesus Christ in the Eucharist?”

 

[billcu1]

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

I realize that missing mass on purpose is a bad and selfish thing, but is it really a mortal sin equal to serial adulterery and mass murder?

As far as moratal sins being equal I don’t think they are. But a mortal sin is a mortal sin. cf. other posts.

 

[FrancisBenedict]

Its not really about that you are obliged to go to mass
as much as you have the opportunity to meet there with God!

 

[Iron_Donkey]

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

I realize that missing mass on purpose is a bad and selfish thing, but is it really a mortal sin equal to serial adulterery and mass murder?

Murder is a mortal sin. Slowly torturing all of the inhabitants of an entire country to death is a mortal sin.

Is a relatively painless form of killing someone as bad as slowly torturing millions of people to death? No, probably not. But it’s still a mortal sin.

Mortal sin isn’t just about how bad the thing is. A mortal sin is a willing, knowing and grave putting of oneself and one’s desires above God. Whether or not an action seems or even less bad than any given mortal sin isn’t really relevant to the question of whether or not the action is mortal.

 

[polytropos]

Missing mass is a mortal sin because it separates us from God fully (when done intentionally and knowingly), as do the other mortal sins.

Is stealing a car worse than stealing $5 from the cash register where you work? Sure, but they are both mortal sins that separate us from God.

We often worry a lot about the sins that do not just offend God but hurt other people, ie. murder and rape. These are the sins that we punish legally - because they damage society directly - but they are not the only things that cause spiritual harm. God offers us more than we could imagine, and his requirement that we join his banquet on Sundays is pretty reasonable.

 

[JordanRogers]

The church teaches missing it without good reason is, who would want to miss The Eucharist though?

 

[jmcrae]

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

I realize that missing mass on purpose is a bad and selfish thing, but is it really a mortal sin equal to serial adulterery and mass murder?

I think in our culture we have a tendency to reduce every activity to a form of entertainment, including the Mass. If you are thinking of the Mass as a kind of entertainment, then it would certainly seem ludicrous to think that missing Mass, if we are thinking of it as an hour of amateur entertainment, would be a sin of any kind, let alone a mortal sin.

However, when we realize that Mass is the worship that we owe to God each Lord’s Day, and that there is nothing that can take its place, then we realize that any time we miss Mass, we are going into debt with God - thus, making a hole where He should be - and thus, we are out of a state of grace - meaning, that we are in a state of mortal sin, since we can only be one or the other - in a state of grace, or in a state of mortal sin. There is no in-between. That’s when we begin to understand the severity of missing Sunday Mass.

 

[fhansen]

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

I realize that missing mass on purpose is a bad and selfish thing, but is it really a mortal sin equal to serial adulterery and mass murder?

The manner in which we freely choose to spend any particular moment of our lives is a testimony to how we believe, at that moment, life should be spent. It’s potentially, but not necessarily, a glimpse, in temporality, of our hearts orientation towards eternal values, towards what is the right and what is wrong way to live. God, who judges by the heart according to scripture, knows how to sort it all out but the Catechism has this to say about mortal sin:

1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance”:…

 

[JulieSalveson]

For many reasons it is a great gift to be able to go to Mass on Sunday and every day of the week. Because I have a daughter who doesn’t share my appreciation, I think about this a lot. I read an article about how to get along with difficult people. The author said to try to figure out how that person likes to be loved and then do it. It made perfect sense to me because I have always had trouble getting along with my in-laws who want to be loved by having people spend lots of money on them. Shopping is their favorite pass time. These things seem wrong to me, but if I gave into their wishes more often I would have saved myself a lot of grief. God says he wants us to love Him by coming to Mass on Sunday. If nothing else, just do it, it will save you a lot of grief and eventually bring you joy.

 

[davidv]

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

I realize that missing mass on purpose is a bad and selfish thing, but is it really a mortal sin equal to serial adulterery and mass murder?

According to the Catechism:

II. THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH

2041 The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor: 2042 The first precept (“You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor”) requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place, by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered, and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days.82

Why?

1324 The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life."136 "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."137

1325 "The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit."138
1326 Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all.139 1327 In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: "Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking."140

None of the above depends on the greater or lesser evil of some other sin.

 

[snarflemike]

There’s another way to look at this. Suppose God told you that if you that there was only one fruit that you could not eat or you would die. And suppose you thought “that’s ridiculous, I know that fruit won’t kill me and it’s a stupid rule, so I’m going to eat that fruit regardless!” It is not the act of eating the fruit that will kill you, it is the act of telling God to pound salt, that you know better than he does, that will kill you.

Seriously, if you KNOW that missing Mass can be a mortal sin, why would you ever do it? Never mind that we should all desire the graces we get at Mass, but what otherwise-faithful and sincere Catholic would just commit a mortal sin like that? No, somebody who would deliberately miss Mass, knowing that it can be a mortal sin, is somebody who is certainly blowing off other Catholic teachings as well, and the Church in general. There will always be a pattern of rejection involved, not a single isolated incident.

 

[ccmcmg]

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

I realize that missing mass on purpose is a bad and selfish thing, but is it really a mortal sin equal to serial adulterery and mass murder?

I think sometimes people try to justify their sins: “I didn’t go to Mass, but I haven’t KILLED anyone/stolen anything/tripped a senior citizen. Surely God will see the good that I have done, and it will balance out.”

I’m not saying that’s what you are saying, but I believe that it’s a human tendency to do that.

God bless,
Christina

 

[jmcrae]

I think sometimes people try to justify their sins: “I didn’t go to Mass, but I haven’t KILLED anyone/stolen anything/tripped a senior citizen. Surely God will see the good that I have done, and it will balance out.”

I’m not saying that’s what you are saying, but I believe that it’s a human tendency to do that.

God bless,
Christina

There is also the notion that God is required to take other people’s sins into account when judging yours. He doesn’t. If you have fallen short of perfection, and you have not been reconciled in the Confessional, then God will not say, “Well, I will call you Perfect, because you are the first person I’ve met today who didn’t steal paper clips from the office store room - your missing Mass will not be counted against you, because of that.”

No. God will judge you according to His standard of perfection, and whatever sins have not been absolved in the Confessional will stand against you - no matter how tiny they may seem in comparison to everyone else’s sins.

He also doesn’t have a minimum quota of people who have to go to Heaven. If we all go to Hell, He has not lost anything - those who are required to go to Heaven (Moses, Elijah, and Mary) are already there.

This doesn’t mean that we should despair - what it means is that we should go to Confession and have our sins absolved, and then strive to live perfect lives - and return to the Confessional every time we fall short of God’s standards.

 

[Henry64]

When you miss mass on Sunday you are not thanking God for sending his beloved son to die for us.
You are not participating of re-presentation to the father of the sacrifice of the son. You are not offering to God your work, your worries, your acomplishments, your failures.
All these things and many others constitute a sin against the first commandment,
The worst thing is that you miss being in heaven.
I read some time ago an article of a protestant pastor asking why Catholics ask if a mass on saturday afternoon is valid as sunday mass.
He says that if he was a Catholic and he were to belive what Catholics believe the mass is, he would be there on saturday, on sunday, on monday he says he would be there all the days of the week.
There is one thing that worths being at mass, and that is being with our Lord JesusChrist, where the Son is, is the Father, and so The Holy spirit. Where the Holy Trinity is there are the angels and the saints, Scott Hahn says it one phrase “When you go to mass, you go to Heaven”
I don´t know if you like reading, if so, I would recomend to you reading “The Lambs Supper” of Scott Hahn. If you don´t enjoy reading, you should at least watch “The Great Miracle” that is available on line.

 

[mikee]

HabemusFrancis:

I have heard it said that missing mass deliberately is a mortal sin. What does that mean? That missing mass is as bad as going on a cocaine fueled shooting spree? Or perhaps being a serial adulterer with teenage mistresses?

Could it be that all thee above are sins that lead to hell, but the latter two are just a bit more harmful?

The essence of mortal sin is the turning away from God as your last end. And so if a Catholic were to miss Mass on Sunday deliberately and without good reason, he or she is withholding something one has a grave obligation to give to God (their adoration and worship at Mass, as stipulated by the laws of his Church).

But with that said, yes, there can be mortal sins that are graver and more serious in consequences.