Chapter 24

WHY CATHOLICS ATTEND MASS SO FREQUENTLY

You may have wondered at times why Catholics attend Church so frequently.  On Sunday mornings from early morning until noon, a Catholic Church may be filled with worshippers not once but several times.  Its doors remain open not only on Sunday but on each day of the week.  Mass is said each morning and each morning many of the faithful are present.  There must be a weighty motive impelling the Catholic to attend Church so often.  It is true that the Catholic religion obliges the faithful to be present at Mass on Sunday.  But though the sense of obligation has its effect in church attendance, the sense of fulfilling an obligation alone would not account for the great numbers that attend Mass on Sundays and on all days of the week were there not something there awaiting them, something that is eminently soul-satisfying, something that satisfies the yearning of the human soul for the communion with its God.  

The Catholic hurrying toward his Church on a cold, dark wintry morning knows that the living Christ is there waiting for him.  He knows that it will be his great privilege to be present at the august and divine sacrifice of Calvary itself,  If it had been possible, would you have been present beneath the Cross on Calvary?  Would you have been eager to take your place there beside His Mother Mary, the Apostle John and Mary Magdalene?  Would you have been happy to share with them the sorrows of your crucified Savior?  Undoubtedly you would.  Well, you can have this great privilege once you come back home.  You can stand again with all your forefathers before God's altar while the sacrifice of Calvary is again consummated.  You can experience that nearness to God, the same you would have experienced on Calvary with the eyes of the dying Christ upon you.  You can lift up your gaze as the priest elevates the Sacred Host and see God, as surely as when the eyes of His Mother saw God as she looked into the eyes of her dying Son.  "It is the Mass that matters," said a notable English Protestant.  He meant that it is the Sacrifice of the Mass that makes all the difference in the world between the Catholic Church and those other churches that call themselves Christian, but whose altars know no longer the Sacrifice of the Living God.  

I do not fully understand the Mass, you may say.  And that may be true now.  But you would have understood the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary had you been there.  And once you have returned home, when you have pondered over the meaning of the Mass and have assisted the priest in offering up the Sacrifice of Christ, you will know that the Sacrifice of the Mass is but the renewal of the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.  You will be overwhelmed with joy, and again to be united with Christ, your Savior, as He offers Himself up to His heavenly Father for the Redemption of mankind.