Matters Arising: Making up for Missing Mass
Rev. Fr. Nicholas Mary, CSSR
Fr. Nicholas answers topical questions in the light of moral theology and canon law.
Assuming that one is unable to attend Sunday Mass for a good reason, is one obliged to do something else to fulfil the Sunday precept? Must one spend a certain amount of time in prayer, or perhaps attend Mass during the week ?
Let us begin with some revision from the Catechism of St Pius X:
‘Q. What does the Third Commandment, Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day, command us to do?
‘A. The Third Commandment, Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day, commands us to honour God by acts of worship on festivals.
‘Q. What are festivals?
‘A. In the Old Law they were Saturdays and certain other days regarded as specially solemn by the Jews; in the New Law they are Sundays and other festivals instituted by the Church.
‘Q. Why is Sunday sanctified instead of Saturday in the New Law?
‘A. Sunday, which means the Lord’s Day, was substituted for Saturday, because it was on that day that Our Lord rose from the dead.
‘Q. What act of worship is commanded us on festivals?
‘A. We are commanded to assist devoutly at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
‘Q. With what other good works does a good Christian sanctify festivals?
‘A. A good Christian sanctifies festivals: (1) By attending Christian Doctrine, sermons, and the Divine Office; (2) By frequently and devoutly receiving the sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Eucharist; (3) By the practice of prayer and works of Christian charity.’1
Since the specific manner in which we are to honour God by worship on Sundays is determined by the Church to be attendance at Holy Mass, the positive part of the Third Commandment (as distinguished from the negative prohibition of unnecessary servile labour) overlaps with the First Precept of the Church, i.e. to hear Mass on all Sundays and on holy days of obligation.
To answer the question correctly we have to understand that we are only strictly obliged to that which the Church commands us to do in order to keep our Sundays holy. Fr. F. J. Connell, CSSR explains:
‘The solution of this question goes back to the problem of the basis of the law prescribing the sanctification of Sunday. Under the Old Dispensation, the divine law, contained in the Third Commandment, imposed on the chosen people the obligation to observe the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, as the Lord’s Day. However, this precept, like the other ceremonial prescriptions of the Old Law, ceased with the promulgation of the New Law. In the Christian Dispensation the Lord’s Day has become the first day of the week. Some theologians have held that the sanctification of Sunday is commanded by divine-positive law, but it is the more common opinion that this duty arises from ecclesiastical legislation.2 For the due observance of Sunday the Church has commanded that Christians attend Mass and abstain from servile work as well as from certain other types of activity, such as holding court.’3
Fr. J.J. Guiniven, CSSR elaborates and distinguishes:
‘The more probable opinion with regard to this question, and the common opinion of authors, is that proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas and Suarez. They maintain that the observance of the Sunday in substitution for the Sabbath derives solely and entirely from ecclesiastical law, and that the divine positive law prescribes neither a particular time nor a specific manner for fulfilling the natural law precept of at times rendering worship to God. Their argument is this. Under the Old Dispensation the third precept of the Decalogue was in part ceremonial, in so far as it specified a certain day for the special worship of God, and in part moral, in so far as it prescribed that man should depute some time of his life to worship. The New Law totally abrogated that precept under its ceremonial aspect, and it remained in force only under its moral aspect. Therefore, the precept of the Decalogue as it exists today prescribes no more than that man should devote some time of his life to the worship of God, determining neither a particular day for that duty, nor even that one day a week be devoted to its discharge. … The ecclesiastical law, as contained in the precept of the Church, more accurately determines the natural and divine positive law by assigning a particular day — the Sunday, and a specific manner — the hearing of Mass — for the discharge of the prescribed cult.
‘It is evident that the ecclesiastical law is most conformable to the natural and divine positive law, in so far as it is morally necessary that those laws be more specifically determined, lest society, lacking a public and authoritative designation of a determined time for public worship, would scarcely ever gather for this purpose, and also in so far as it closely parallels the divine positive law as effective under the Old Dispensation, setting aside one day a week in addition to other special feast days for the discharge of this obligation. It must be kept in mind, however, that the Church was under no strict obligation to select the Sunday, or even to depute one day a week for the special worship of God. Even now it is within her absolute power to change this precept, but since it has been canonised by so many centuries of faithful observance and has assumed such great spiritual significance, a sufficient cause could scarcely arise to warrant such a drastic procedure.
‘From the opinion of St. Thomas and Suarez adopted above, it follows that the obligation of hearing Mass on Sundays and feast days cannot be attributed to any prescription of the divine positive law. For if the designation of the Sunday as the day on which special worship must be given to God arises solely from ecclesiastical law, then the obligation of hearing Mass on that day arises from the same source.’4
There are many reasons which might excuse one from this obligation. Fathers McHugh and Callan, OP divide them into two classes, external and internal:
‘External Reasons—Dispensations may be given under certain condi-tions by local Ordinaries, by parish priests, and by superiors of exempt clerical institutes. Custom in certain places excuses from Mass for a month women who have just given birth to a child or who have lost their husband by death, and also — from the Mass in which their banns are to be proclaimed — those women who are about to marry. …
‘Internal Reasons—Impossibility or serious inconvenience excuses from hearing Mass (e.g. those who have to walk an hour’s journey to church or ride a two hours’ journey, regarding which, in terms of distance travelled, it has been suggested that the figures should be more than three miles each way if one must walk, more than thirty miles if a car is available and the roads are good; those who will suffer great detriment to health, honour, fortune, etc. if they go; those who are kept away by duties of charity or employment or office that cannot be omitted).’5
And Fr. Francis Cunningham, OP writes:
‘Sometimes a contrary obligation interferes, as is the case with soldiers, policemen, mothers who must care for children, etc. Sometimes reasons of health, inclement weather or the obligations of charity toward others will interfere. A good practical rule is to demand the same kind of reasons for missing Mass that one would require for missing work or an important social obligation. In cases of doubt about the obligation to attend Mass, a priest should be consulted.’6
We can now proceed to answering the question at hand directly. Concerning those who are excused from the positive obligation to attend Mass for whatever good reason (here he considers excessive distance to travel), Fr Connell writes that:
‘[They] must abstain from forbidden work, as far as they are able; but, in the presumption that they are excused from hearing Mass by reason of distance from the church, they are not bound to perform any special acts of worship on Sunday.’7
Similarly, Fr. Thomas Slater, S.J. notes that:
‘Besides hearing Mass it is a laudable thing to spend some time on Sundays in other acts of piety and prayer, as all good Catholics do. Still there is no other positive obligation besides that of hearing Mass which binds under sin. It is not a sin, then, to omit evening service or Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; and when it is impossible to hear Mass, there no strict obligation to have private devotions instead.’8
And Fr. Guiniven concludes:
‘It is clear from canon 1248 that the positive element of the precept of sanctifying Sundays and Feastdays consists solely in the hearing of Mass.9 There is no precept obliging the faithful to attend Vespers, to be present at sermons or to assist at other religious services. Therefore, even if a person misses Mass, he cannot be bound as a matter of obligation to supply for the omission by the recitation of prayers, or by attendance at other religious functions. In some cases an individual may be obliged to attend services other than the Mass, such as sermons and instructions, if such be necessary for his salvation. Here, however, the obligation would arise, not from the Sunday and Feastday precept, but from the natural law, for one who is bound to attain an end, is obliged to use the means necessary for its attainment.’10
The Church creates the obligation for us to hear Mass on Sundays and certain feast days. If we are unable to satisfy that obligation, we have no further one imposed by the Church’s law. Granted, the Church could, for example, bind us to say the rosary or do some other thing whenever we cannot attend Mass on a day of obligation, but since no such precept exists, we are not bound to fulfil it. If something is imposed on us as a penance in confession when we confess having missed a Mass of obligation through our own fault, then of course we must perform that penance, but not in virtue of the Sunday obligation.
Whatever is suggested to us as a way of making up for missing a Mass, through no fault of our own, is done by way of counsel and not of commandment, and no matter how warmly it is recommended, we need have no scruple that we have sinned by its omission. Once we have accepted this fact, then we can move on to consider in liberty of spirit which good things we might choose to do to make our Sunday holier on a voluntary basis. Reading the Mass from one’s hand missal, attending Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament or Vespers, praying the rosary, following Mass online, doing spiritual reading, studying the catechism, performing spiritual or corporal works of mercy and many other things all represent excellent ways in which to improve our Sunday observance whether or not we have been able to get to Mass, but none of them obliges under pain of sin. †
- 1
The Catechism of Saint Pius X, Instauratio Press, Gladysdale, Vic., 1993) p. 133 and p.147.
- 2
Cf. Fr J. Aertnys, CSSR & Fr C A Damen, CSSR, Theologia Moralis, (Marietti, Turin, 1947) I, n. 593.
- 3
Fr. F.J. Connell, CSSR, Father Connell answers Moral Questions, (CUA, Washington, DC, 1959), q. 81. ‘In the New Law the observance of the Lord’s day took the place of the observance of the Sabbath, not by virtue of the precept but by the institution of the Church and the custom of Christian people,’ writes St Thomas (S.Th II-II q. 122, art. 4 ad 4; cf. I-II, q. 103, a. 3).
- 4
Fr. J.J, Guiniven, CSSR, The Precept of Hearing Mass (CUA, Washington, DC, 1942) pp. 54–6.
- 5
Fr. J.A. McHugh, OP & Fr C.J. Callan, OP, Moral Theology (Wagner, New York, 1958), rev. ed., no. 2584. A journey of merely 30 miles by car would seem insufficient by the standard of today’s vehicles and roads. Having to travel more than an hour by any means would generally excuse one from the obligation.
- 6
Fr. F. Cunningham, OP, The Christian Life (Priory Press, Dubuque, IA, 1959) p. 602. Note that the consultation of a confessor or any other priest for advice is not the same as approaching a parish priest for a dispensation. In practice, one almost never requires the latter, as internal reasons will usually suffice.
- 7
Op. cit. q. 81.
- 8
Fr T. Slater, SJ, A Manual of Moral Theology for English-Speaking Countries ((Burns, Oates & Washbourne, London, 1925), 5th rev. ed., vol. I, p. 170.
- 9
‘On feast days of precept, Mass is to be heard; there is an abstinence from servile work, legal acts, and likewise, unless there is a special indult or legitimate customs provide otherwise, from public trade, shopping, and other public buying and selling.’ Canon 1248 of the 1917 Code in Dr E.N. Peters (ed.), The 1917 or Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law: in English translation with extensive scholarly apparatus (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2001). This is similar to Canon 1247 of the new code: ‘On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to assist at Mass. They are also to abstain from such work or business that would inhibit the worship to be given to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, or the due relaxation of mind and body.’
- 10
Op. cit. p. 78.
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