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ssms27
Guest
Is missing a Sunday mass a mortal sin? If so what makes it a mortal sin?
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marty1818
Guest
Yes it is a mortal sin unless you have a good reason for missing such as an illness. It is a mortal sin because every Sunday we have an obligation to go to Mass. It is also a mortal sin to miss mass on a holy day of obligation.
God Bless,
Matt
God Bless,
Matt
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ssms27
Guest
Why is it an obligation? It seems that willfully missing mass is a mortal sin and will cause you to go to hell. This seems absurd to me. So I guess if I understood why it’s an obiligation it would be helpful.
Thanks.
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Toni
Guest
It is a mortal sin against the third commandment You shall keep holy the Sabath Day, and against the precept of the church to keep holy the Sabath and Holy Days of Obligation. The precept specifies attendance at Mass on Sunday’s and Holy Day’s of Obligation.
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marty1818
Guest
Thanks Toni for clarifying it more.
God Bless,
Matt
God Bless,
Matt
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otm
Guest
The earliset Church was essentially made up of faithful Jews who believed that Christ was the Promised Anointed One (Messiah). They went to the Sabbath (Saturday) services, and began meeting on Sunday to “break bread” ( the Eucharist) as Sunday was the day the Lord was risen.
One of the 10 Commandments (not 10 Suggestions), was that we were to keep holy the Sabbath, which the earliest Christians did.
Some time between the founding of the Church (Pentacost) and probably about 70 AD, when Rome laid waste to Jerusalem, problems arose between those Jews who accepted Christ as the Messiah, and those who didn’t, and essentially the believers were kicked out of the Jewish services. The services, which consisted of prayers and reading of what we now call Old Testament books was moved to Sunday to go along with the Eucharistic celebration.
There have been a number of reasons put forth as to how we shifted to Sunday: the Lord’s day (His Ressurection); a new “Sabbath” (as a break clean from the Jewish tradition and services to Christian tradition and services); the power that Christ gave to bind and loose as the power to set another day to worship God, apart from the Sabbath.
So, in answering your question, you need to go back to pre Christian times to understand how the Jews (from whom Christians came) viewed keeping the Sabbath. It was one of the most important commands God had given them. In fact, the OT tells us that the command to non Jews who lived among the Jews and believed in one God were to keep the covenant (loosely, the various laws the ews had to follow), and the Sabbath; it was the only law which was specifically set out.
God, who is all holy and all good, and upon whom man is completely dependent (read the Psalms for some wonderful statements as to that) is deserving of all our love; and part of that love is setting aside one day to worship Him. In fact, Christ spoke of the two Great Commandments, and the first is to Love God with your whole heart; and doing that includes keeping his laws, among which the most improtant was keeping the Sabbath.
So, missing Mass, which is our way of “keeping Sabbath”, is a viloation of one of the most important and fundamental laws of God. It is not just that the Church says so, it is because God says so. And missin Mass deliberately is deliberately violating one of God’s most fundamental laws to us.
As an aside, Missing Mass should not be viewed as something that will “cause you to go to hell”, as that tends toward a disconnected view of the issues, as if it were something outside yourself. Hell is the absence of God; choosing to miss Mass is choosing to put God in at lest second place, if not in no place at all. It is choosing the absence of God, which is hell. It is choosing hell.
The whole of the moral order and the moral rules isn’t some game, and if we mess up on a rule God plays “Gotch!”
It is about relationship with God, first, and one another second (which is how we usually work out and express our relationship with God). Choosing to not go to Mass is at its base and essence, choosing about our relationship with God.
One of the 10 Commandments (not 10 Suggestions), was that we were to keep holy the Sabbath, which the earliest Christians did.
Some time between the founding of the Church (Pentacost) and probably about 70 AD, when Rome laid waste to Jerusalem, problems arose between those Jews who accepted Christ as the Messiah, and those who didn’t, and essentially the believers were kicked out of the Jewish services. The services, which consisted of prayers and reading of what we now call Old Testament books was moved to Sunday to go along with the Eucharistic celebration.
There have been a number of reasons put forth as to how we shifted to Sunday: the Lord’s day (His Ressurection); a new “Sabbath” (as a break clean from the Jewish tradition and services to Christian tradition and services); the power that Christ gave to bind and loose as the power to set another day to worship God, apart from the Sabbath.
So, in answering your question, you need to go back to pre Christian times to understand how the Jews (from whom Christians came) viewed keeping the Sabbath. It was one of the most important commands God had given them. In fact, the OT tells us that the command to non Jews who lived among the Jews and believed in one God were to keep the covenant (loosely, the various laws the ews had to follow), and the Sabbath; it was the only law which was specifically set out.
God, who is all holy and all good, and upon whom man is completely dependent (read the Psalms for some wonderful statements as to that) is deserving of all our love; and part of that love is setting aside one day to worship Him. In fact, Christ spoke of the two Great Commandments, and the first is to Love God with your whole heart; and doing that includes keeping his laws, among which the most improtant was keeping the Sabbath.
So, missing Mass, which is our way of “keeping Sabbath”, is a viloation of one of the most important and fundamental laws of God. It is not just that the Church says so, it is because God says so. And missin Mass deliberately is deliberately violating one of God’s most fundamental laws to us.
As an aside, Missing Mass should not be viewed as something that will “cause you to go to hell”, as that tends toward a disconnected view of the issues, as if it were something outside yourself. Hell is the absence of God; choosing to miss Mass is choosing to put God in at lest second place, if not in no place at all. It is choosing the absence of God, which is hell. It is choosing hell.
The whole of the moral order and the moral rules isn’t some game, and if we mess up on a rule God plays “Gotch!”
It is about relationship with God, first, and one another second (which is how we usually work out and express our relationship with God). Choosing to not go to Mass is at its base and essence, choosing about our relationship with God.
T
tjmiller
Guest
Aside from the extrinsic imperative of Mass attendance, it is also a matter of the intrinsic need of the spiritual life. It is at Sunday Mass *par excellence * that the Church comes to together as the Mystical Body of Christ. We are there nourished by His Body and Blood, by the Truth of His Word, through the prayers of the priest and the people, etc. By choosing to skip out on Sunday Mass, a member of the Body cuts itself off from the very Life of the Body. A cut-off member is a dead member… 
(To be in mortal sin is to be spiritually dead, to be cut off from the Life of the Body.)
(To be in mortal sin is to be spiritually dead, to be cut off from the Life of the Body.)
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ssms27
Guest
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for the detailed replies. I think I am understanding why missing mass would be so important.
Thanks for the detailed replies. I think I am understanding why missing mass would be so important.
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rwoehmke
Guest
Some very good answers as to the reason why the Church holds Sunday Mass attendance as being very important to the spiritual life of a Catholic. In light of this the “Church” has the power from Jesus to bind one under pain of serious sin to do certain things like attend Mass on Sundays and certain Holy Days, Fast and abstain on the days appointed, receiving the Eucharist at least once a year during Easter time, etc. It is called “The Power of the Keys” or the power to “Bind and Loose”.
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dumspirospero
Guest
Well…missing the Sunday Mass obligation makes it a mortal sin…what else?
ssms27:
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