What should be done about those who leave Mass early?

[mercyman88]

I have noticed dozens and dozens of people who receive Communion and then leave Mass. Being a former football player, part of me wants to tackle them and ask them “Where are you going? Mass is not over.” While that would make for interesting TV, it’s not advisible in church.

But should the priests say something? Should parishioners? Should the ushers redirect those back to their seats? I find this very disrespectful!

What should I do?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

As for what you should do, I recommend praying for the early-birds, both for whatever reason is necessitating that they leave early (in recognition that some who leave early may indeed have serious reason to do so) and that they be granted the grace to more deeply understand the Mass as the re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary (so that, once understanding that, they will not want to leave early without serious reason).

As for what parishes can do to stem the flow of early-birds taking off before Mass is over, pastors can put messages in the bulletins and write to parish families about the problem, and priests and deacons can give homilies on the theology of the Mass (to aid in parishioners obtaining that deeper understanding of why they shouldn’t leave early). But any means of trying to actually prevent someone who wants to leave from leaving, whether by priests singling out early-birds from the altar, ushers redirecting congregants back to their seats, or parishioners scolding (or tackling) those departing, may be well-intentioned but is misguided. Even Jesus Christ did not attempt to stop someone from leaving early from the very first Mass and even the fellow congregants at that first Mass initially attributed to that early-bird just motives for leaving early (John 13:26-30).