Sunday Obligation in the East

[ConstantineTG]

I know that Sundays are not taught as an obligation in the East. So how is it taught that tells people they need to be in church every Sunday?

 

[Little_Boy_Lost]

Hey CTG,

My understanding is that you should be going to church because you love the church and the question is then why wouldn’t you attend the liturgies or partake of the Holy Mysteries? Why would you deny yourself the opportunity to praise God and receive his special graces?

 

[Matthew_Holford]

As we are in the ECF, I assume the OP’s question refers to the 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches. Codex canonum ecclesiarum orientalium Can. #881 does oblige attendance at Divine Liturgy on Sunday and feast days.

I strongly agree with you Little Boy Lost, we should want to go; not go purely out of obligation.

 

[ConstantineTG]

As we are in the ECF, I assume the OP’s question refers to the 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches. Codex canonum ecclesiarum orientalium Can. #881 does oblige attendance at Divine Liturgy on Sunday and feast days.

I strongly agree with you Little Boy Lost, we should want to go; not go purely out of obligation.

Most of us do. The problem is there are people who think they can love and praise and worship God in their own homes just fine. Yes, its common among Protestants but that dangerous belief has made its way to Catholics as well. I just wonder how being in church every Sunday is taught in the East.

 

[Aramis]

Hey CTG,

My understanding is that you should be going to church because you love the church and the question is then why wouldn’t you attend the liturgies or partake of the Holy Mysteries? Why would you deny yourself the opportunity to praise God and receive his special graces?

After 6 pastors, I’ve heard this from 4, and obligation taught explicitly from two.

 

[ConstantineTG]

After 6 pastors, I’ve heard this from 4, and obligation taught explicitly from two.

A previous pastor of mine (Roman Catholic) always compares missing Mass to missing a meal. He says that we can’t even stand to miss a meal, and yet its so ordinary for people to miss Mass. Our stomachs would grumble if we don’t have our meal on time, but he wonders why we don’t have a spiritual heart attack when we miss Sunday Mass.

I think its a good way to emphasize the importance of Mass without making it sound like an obligation. We are in no way obligated to eat, we need to to survive physically. Sunday Liturgy is needed so we can survive spiritually.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

Most of us do.

I know.

The problem is there are people who think they can love and praise and worship God in their own homes just fine.

I think you can but not in place of communal liturgy [is that tautologous?] in Church.

Yes, its common among Protestants but that dangerous belief has made its way to Catholics as well.

Very true.

I just wonder how being in church every Sunday is taught in the East.

Can’t help on that one I’m afraid.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I think you can but not in place of communal liturgy [is that tautologous?] in Church.

Of course, communal worship is important. It reminds us that in heaven its not a one-on-one thing between God and ourselves, but we join the Communion of Saints.

 

[wjp984]

I have heard it is a Latinization, but there are days of obligation for Eastern Catholics. The ones that come to mind are all Sundays, The Theophany (baptism of Jesus celebrated on the same day as the Epiphany), The Ascension, The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, The Dormition (Assumption) and of course Christmas.

(The above applies to Ruthenian Catholics in the US, and the days of obligaton might be different in other rites and countries).

But does it really matter? Are Roman Catholics really “obligated” to go to Church on certain days? Unless you are a child under obediance of a parent no one is forcing anyone to go to Church. It is however nice to know which days in particular are especially important to attend.

 

[ConstantineTG]

But does it really matter? Are Roman Catholics really “obligated” to go to Church on certain days? Unless you are a child under obediance of a parent no one is forcing anyone to go to Church. It is however nice to know which days in particular are especially important to attend.

Yes. Roman Catholics are under pain of sin if they do not go to church on Holy Days of Obligation. Episcopal Conferences of each region/country will designate which from the calendar given by Rome will be dispensed, reassigned to a Sunday, or will be celebrated on the designated day. For example, here in Canada we are obligated to go on all Sundays plus Christmas and January 1st (Feast of Virgin Mary).

 

[wjp984]

Oh I know but my point was it doesn’t matter what you call it. There are days when Catholics should go to church but no one is physically forcing anyone to do so. If the Pope said that it were no longer required to go to Church every Sunday and that once a month were sufficient would you stop going every Sunday? I would hope not.

 

[Aramis]

Oh I know but my point was it doesn’t matter what you call it. There are days when Catholics should go to church but no one is physically forcing anyone to do so. If the Pope said that it were no longer required to go to Church every Sunday and that once a month were sufficient would you stop going every Sunday? I would hope not.

In most of the east, it’s a not a mortal sin to miss a day of obligation, and even that can, traditionally, be mitigated with other pious praxis.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

In most of the east, it’s a not a mortal sin to miss a day of obligation, and even that can, traditionally, be mitigated with other pious praxis.

So violating a canon from the Eastern Code is not a mortal sin?

Or is it not a mortal sin because the Eastern Traditions do not really have the distinction of mortal and venial sins the way the Western Tradition does?

 

[Matthew_Holford]

So violating a canon from the Eastern Code is not a mortal sin?

Or is it not a mortal sin because the Eastern Traditions do not really have the distinction of mortal and venial sins the way the Western Tradition does?

Do the Eastern Traditions not, for want of a better word, ‘grade’ sins? In the Latin Church I can commit as many venial sins as I like and I do not have to confess them. (I do actually confess venial sins but in the legalistic western tradition there’s no compunction to confess venial ones.) Of course, if I commit just one mortal sin I must confess and cannot take Holy Communion until I’ve confessed it. In the Eastern Tradition, are all sins confessed? There’s probably no obligation in the East, the eastern faithful probably wouldn’t even consider not doing it.

 

[Little_Boy_Lost]

I see it so much in this society and I find it odd that people approach morality with “How much can I get away with” or “When do I HAVE to attend Mass” or “Because I didn’t do x,y,z it’s not a mortal sin.” This is a bad way to approach a life in Christ. Rather we should ask “How can I best spend my time?” “Is this helping me to emulate Christ in life?”

 

[Matthew_Holford]

I see it so much in this society and I find it odd that people approach morality with “How much can I get away with” or “When do I HAVE to attend Mass” or “Because I didn’t do x,y,z it’s not a mortal sin.” This is a bad way to approach a life in Christ. Rather we should ask “How can I best spend my time?” “Is this helping me to emulate Christ in life?”

I can’t answer your question. I wish I could. I wonder if this has always been the mindset of the west or if it is novel. I suspect it has been the western mindset for a long time. I know from my father that if you hadn’t been to Mass on Sunday you were caned at school on Monday. There’s seems to be a legalistic mindset in the west about what is obligatory and I have to do and what is optional and I won’t or don’t have to do. I’ve never quite understood why venial sins can be seen as minor details that we don’t have to confess.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I see it so much in this society and I find it odd that people approach morality with “How much can I get away with” or “When do I HAVE to attend Mass” or “Because I didn’t do x,y,z it’s not a mortal sin.” This is a bad way to approach a life in Christ. Rather we should ask “How can I best spend my time?” “Is this helping me to emulate Christ in life?”

From my experience this is how I have viewed it.

It seems that the Roman Church has always given the laity the minimums. Such as what the minimum acceptable for the Fast, for Communion (once a year at Easter), and Confession (once a year, preferably during Lent). While the Eastern Churches have always given the laity the maximums, again what the maximum for the Fast should be.

This has been how I see it.

The idea of “Obligation” for Liturgy attendance has always bothered me. If you only attend the Liturgy because of an obligation then I do not think that it is efficacious. You should want to be there, if not why go?

 

[ConstantineTG]

From my experience this is how I have viewed it.

It seems that the Roman Church has always given the laity the minimums. Such as what the minimum acceptable for the Fast, for Communion (once a year at Easter), and Confession (once a year, preferably during Lent). While the Eastern Churches have always given the laity the maximums, again what the maximum for the Fast should be.

This has been how I see it.

The idea of “Obligation” for Liturgy attendance has always bothered me. If you only attend the Liturgy because of an obligation then I do not think that it is efficacious. You should want to be there, if not why go?

On the other hand, sometimes it forms good habits that eventually will lead to better spirituality. I speak from my own experience. I was brought up by a devout mom. She wouldn’t accept me or any of my siblings not going to church on Sundays. At one time in my life I began to waver my faith. I was borderline agnostic, but I still went to Mass out of habit and because I couldn’t lie to my mom that I didn’t go. I bet if I did completely stop going to Mass, there is no way I would still be Catholic today.

 

[Aramis]

So violating a canon from the Eastern Code is not a mortal sin?

Or is it not a mortal sin because the Eastern Traditions do not really have the distinction of mortal and venial sins the way the Western Tradition does?

Both.

Violation of many canons in the CIC isn’t a grave sin, either. Actually, except for the ones which bring the obligation of excommunication, it’s rather silent on the gravity of sins.

The East’s distinction on sin overall is much fuzzier, but still, sins vary in gravity. But the general approach is much less legalistic, as well.

Canon 881

1. The Christian faithful are bound by the obligation to participate on Sundays and feast days in the Divine Liturgy, or according to the prescriptions or legitimate customs of their own Church sui iuris, in the celebration of the divine praises.
2. In order for the Christian faithful to fulfill this obligation more easily, the available time runs from the evening of the vigil until the end of the Sunday or feast day.
3. The Christian faithful are strongly recommended to receive the Divine Eucharist on these days and indeed more frequently, even daily.
4. The Christian faithful should abstain from those labors or business matters which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s day, or to the proper relaxation of mind and body.

Note that the Divine Liturgy is NOT the obligation; the obligation is Divine Praises and/or Divine Liturgy, as determined by particular law or particular custom. Individual Churches Sui Iuris can restrict it to Divine Liturgy, but the CCEO permits either to fulfil the duty if the Church Sui Iuris does.

Priests and bishops, however, are the ones bound to the obligation of the Divine Liturgy… in separate canons from the one above.

The Faithful are also obligated to assist their church frequently, and in evangelization of nations.

 

[Little_Boy_Lost]

This is a little side tracked but can a Roman Catholic fulfill his obligation by going to a Vespers service at a Byzantine church? I invited my friend along one time with me and told him I was pretty sure it would count since it does for me. But he thought it only applied to me. Is it only for the Byzantine faithful?