Here is what happened in a nutshell: around 4 in the afternoon on Sunday, it became obvious that 1.) my husband and I could go to church and the door would NOT BE HUNG that day or for weeks to come (stepdad is the only person we know capable of doing it and they had to leave that evening so my mom could be at work the next day), 2.) they could hang the door and miss church. 3.) we could go to church, leaving my mom and stepdad to try and finish the job themselves, obviously creating a huge imposition on people who were kind enough to come and work all weekend to help us (“hey you guys finish up, we’ll be back”), 4.) They would have probably been nice enough to stay the. iChat and my mom would not have been able to go to work.
Those were the options. Sanding the paint off the door took much longer than expected and at that point, the door was off the house. My husband fully intended to go to mass at 5 until then, but we had NO DOOR.
Me leaving the kids with my mom would still not have affected my husband’s situation, which is what we are discussing.
I cannot for the life of me see how this could have been handled differently, aside from being psychic and anticipating the problems with the door.
Here is a quote from Jones’ Moral Theology:
198,–III Excuses from assisting at Mass. Any **moderately **grave reason suffices to excuse one from assistance at Holy Mass, such as considerable hardship or corporal or spiritual harm either to oneself or another.
[smaller print] Therefore, the following are excused: the sick, convalescent, person who cannot endure the air in church (e.g., certain neurotic persons and sometimes pregnant women in the first or last months of pregnancy); those that have a long way to church, people hindered by the duties of their state (e.g. shepherds, watchmen, policement on duty, cooks, and those working in mills that may not shut down over Sunday); women or children who would incur the grave displeasure of their husbands or parents by attending Mass, servants whose masters to not permit them to attend Mass (should this happen consistently the servants should seek other employment); those that care for the sick, rescue workers in time of fire or flood; and those who have reason to think that by staying home they can hinder sin,
or who would suffer injury to their good name or possessions by going to Church (Thus: unmarried women who are pregnant, may remain at home if by doig so they can avoid disgrace; similarly, those who lack clothing becoming to their social standing; those on a journey; those who would suffer the loss of extraordinary gain by attending Mass). One may miss Mass for the sake of a pleasure trip once or twice if he has no other opportunity during the year, or if it is the last opportunity he will ever have for a certain excursion (CF 60) … …
Looking at 60, we see that "Since one must observe the law, he also has the duty:
a) to acquire knowledge of the law…
b) to use the ordinary means which are absolutely necessary for observance of the law…
c) to remove or anticipate obstacles which make the law (proximately) impossible of observance.
[small print] alpha) if the time for the observance of a law is at hand, it is forbidden to render oneself incapable of its observance, unless there is a correspondingly good reason for doing so. The gravity of the reason must be in proportion to the importance of the law, the nearness of the time for its fulfillment, and the frequency of the law’s non-observance by putting such an obstacle in the way of its fulfillment – One may not take a trip on Saturday afternoon merely for pleasure if doing so makes attendance at Mass the next day impossible.
beta) If the time for observing the law is still remote such as obstacle may be placed…
delta) One may never do anything *with the intention of *rendering the observance of the law impossible. Hence it is sinful to work merely to be excused from the oblication of fasting…
(I left out a lot of Jones’ italics, and the bold I added as those parts seemed important to your situation.)
Looking at all of this, my ***totally ***lay person’s thought is that you have *not *committed a sin. However, I am not a priest and would not tell you anything definitively. It just seems to me that you and your husband were not *trying *to miss Mass, do not usually schedule events like this to interfere with Mass, etc.
It is not the Church’s intention to *burden *us with the obligation to attend Mass. The reason I looked this up was I remembered that wrt work on Sunday, it says: Farmers may harvest their grain, hay, etc., or gather fruit on Sunday if a storm threatens. (194. Causes excusing from the Sunday rest).
When you get a chance, you should discuss this with your own priest, but in the meantime, I would suggest not worrying about it.
