Sunday - day of obligation

[MissRose73]

I am lucky enough to be able to find Masses within 30 minutes of my home that start on Sunday at 7:30 am through until a noon start and then start up again at about 4 pm all the way through to a start at 7 pm Sunday night. On Saturday night, likewise, there are a range of options. Catholics who do not live in the middle of such a high concentration of parishes as I do would not have that option. The “ability” to go to Mass depends very much on variables such as that.

When I had a work schedule that required me to work 9:30 am to 6 pm on both Saturdays and Sundays for a few months, it made it hard to find a Mass in my diocese. I was lucky for the few months I had the schedule before I got something earlier, to find an 8am Mass about 10 minutes from work as most parishes had 8:30 am or later starts much further away with the diocesan cathedral offering a 5:30pm as the latest Sunday time. If the priest preached too long, if there was a baptism, or it was packed among other things, it would mean I’d have to leave early after Communion to make it to work on time. I live in a diocese where many of the churches are far spread out as some areas are semi rural or rural.

If I was living in the large archdiocese still, the available of Mass times was not an issue as it was a suburban area of a larger city with plenty of churches close by with more Mass times available on Saturday evenings and Sundays. I was able to attend Mass even on days I had to work weekends.

 

[spiderweb]

The text of the law says we are obliged to participate in Mass and refrain from certain labor on Sunday. No one (in authority) has ever said the obligation to rest from servile labor begins on Saturday. That suggestion was considered by the drafter’s of the canon and rejected. Likewise, I know of no one (in authority) who has said the obligation to participate in Mass actually begins on Saturday.

It wasn’t necessarily a question of “impossibility.” That first indult was followed by a clarification of sorts, a few days later, which said:

no change has occurred in the general character of the Church’s discipline relative to the Sunday precept and, therefore, Sunday is the day consecrated to our Lord…; **in order to always make easier the fulfillment of the obligation to hear holy Mass and to eliminate its regrettable non-fulfillment **

We are not required to participate in mass on Saturday, but as is underlined above, the Saturday vigil indult was made to “eliminate its regrettable non-fulfillment”. If one is knowingly unable to attend mass on Sunday, then I believe they would be required to attend mass on the Saturday vigil if at all possible in order to fulfill the worship of God on the Lord’s day so that it is not “regrettably non-fulfilled”.

To my way of thinking, it would be no different than saying that I know a can’t attend the 9 AM Sunday mass but I can attend the 11 AM Sun. mass, then I am obligated to attend the 11 AM mass. In the same way if I can’t attend either of the Sunday masses, but I am able to attend the Saturday vigil, then I am obligated to attend the Saturday vigil. Not because Saturday is “the Lord’s day”, but rather because I have a duty to worship the God who created me and through the Apostolic Authority of the Church, it is made possible that I can still worship God on “the Lord’s day” even if it is not the same calendar day.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

I think I will keep this comment in mind if I am ever said to be a rigorist…“on the contrary, I have been called laxist.”

I do hope that comes in handy; there are times it would be helpful to have such a quote in my own pocket, but unfortunately I don’t think I’ve yet been labeled a laxist - though, for the record, neither have you, for the adjective was appended to “interpretation.”

As for the substance, I totally get that odiosa restringenda, so we ought not to be trying to extend obligations beyond their strict construction, and the law, granted, says the obligation is attached to Sunday. But in interpreting the law we ought also to favor meaningful over nonsensical readings, and nonsense is precisely what we are driven to if we disclaim any and all obligation of Saturday Mass attendance.

How, after all, can one “eliminate [the Sunday precept’s] regrettable non-fulfillment” by allowing Masses outside the scope of that precept? Or, if it is impossible to NOT fulfill on Saturday one’s obligation to attend Mass (because no such obligation exists before 12am Sunday), why on earth would we need to be granted, conceded, a new means to fulfill the non-existent obligation? How can we say that one fulfills an obligation by performing an action that is wholly optional (because they could just as easily choose not to attend and still not fail in their obligation)?