People differ on how to present the unlimited re-opening of Mass. For any Catholic there is the beauty and essential nature of Mass rightly ordered toward praising and worshipping God, hearing his Word and receiving his Body and Blood. Related to this is the damage done when Catholics ignore the obligation and separate themselves from Mass and the Community of fellow believers. The first treats of the blessing of being summoned to Mass by the Lord, and the second treats of the serious obligation stemming from that summons. They must be taken together. And so Bishop Caggiano has lifted the dispensation which had suspended the Sunday obligation.
Sunday Mass is the one thing the Lord asked at his Last Supper. As Fulton Sheen wrote: The most sublime act in the history of Christ was His Death…He Himself told us that He came “to give His Life as a redemption for many”…If then Death was the supreme moment for which Christ lived, it was therefore the one thing He wished to have remembered. He did not ask that men should write down His Words into Scripture…but He did ask that men remember His Death. And in order that its memory might not be any haphazard narrative on the part of men, He Himself instructed the precise way it should be recalled…Hence the Mass is to us the crowning act of Christian worship.
As a parish we will spend the next weeks and months renewing our appreciation for and understanding of this “crowning act” of our worship. For now, please take the time to watch the video in the section below. In it Bishop Robert Barron reflects on how the spiritually mature must approach Mass. It’s 30 minutes long but is serious and well worth the time and focus dedicated to it.
Health and many blessings,
