Why should we bother to rock up to Mass occasionally?

It is interesting that one of the initial findings of the Pastoral Projects Office survey of Catholics who have left regular participation in the Mass is "a failure to find spiritual fulfilment in attending Mass". (See report HERE.) I have to confess that a lot of the time, and even with the best will in the world, I often find myself bored mindless and unable to find much in the way of spiritual fulfilment through attending Mass.

If I am brutally honest with myself the reasons I attend Mass are not by way of seeking "spiritual fulfilment" nor even of worshipping God. I honestly do not carry a sense within myself that God is "hanging out" waiting for any worship and adulation from Tom Scott. Of course, the answers the Church would like me to give are that I attend out of a sense of responsibility in fulfilling my Sunday obligation (and obligation to honour the Third Commandment) and to worship God.

At this stage of my life most of my waking hours these days, and I am sure much of my dreaming time, is devoted to better understanding God and asking what God seeks of me. I certainly do have a sense that I am "keeping Holy the Lord's Day" - and all the other days in the week as well. Attending Mass does not make the day "more holy".

The principal reason why I attend Mass these days is out of a sense of social obligation. Let me explain this further. It is not "social obligation" in the sense of trying to impress my neighbours or even, in an immediate sense, of trying to set a good example, and encourage them to front up to Church also. The meaning I have in "social obligation" here is that as a community and as a civilisation we all carry within us a responsibility to remember certain pieces of information and wisdom that make us who we are.

At present I am reading Jared Diamond's book, Collapse - why societies choose to succeed or fail. This large book is a comprehensive survey of past civilisations and communities that have collapsed contrasted with others which have continued. I have long believed that one element in the collapse of civilisations is when the community of a civilisation as a whole simply forgets some or all of the key principles upon which their survival depended. It does seem incredible that a whole community of individuals numbering thousands even millions to tens of millions might collectively "forget" basic information that helped form that community in the first place. The ruins of so many ancient civilisations that dot our planet demonstrate that such a proposition is actually not all that "incredible". So many human civilisations have arisen to greatness in the resources and monuments they produced and yet, after a period of time, the civilisation itself "crumbled to dust" leaving only stone monuments and the middens that fascinate modern-day anthropologists. While in some cases environment factors outside the control of the people themselves help explain these collapses, in others one detects a simple process where the community somehow lost, or became distracted away from, the knowledge that had been crucial in forming the community and civilisation.

Jesus himself in the institution of the Eucharist used the word "remember". He asked us to undertake the Eucharist celebration "in remembrance of me". Now, I submit, this was not some egotistical sense of Jesus himself wanting to be "personally remembered" as some modern day politician or celebrity might want to be "remembered" beyond tomorrow's headline. What the Son of God is asking us to "remember" is not him in a personal sense but him in the sense of the wisdom and knowledge that he represents.

A carving of the Last Supper that graces the wall in my dining room.

I think we (the Church) have failed if we have been endeavouring to sell "going to Mass" as some endeavour of seeking "spiritual fulfilment" - or even of commanded duty or social obligation. Certainly in the beginning stages of our spiritual journeys, as with the beginning stages of life's social journey that we go through as children, we need to be disciplined, to undertake the chore. A point is reached though where, as in the rearing of children, the individual needs to accept self-responsibility.

Perhaps if the institution is to again encourage people to undertake this obligation of their own free will she needs to re-explain in new language the reason why it is a good idea to "keep Holy the Sabbath Day" - why it is a good idea to "remember" the wisdom and knowledge that is represented by the Messiah.

Regards, Tom Scott

Tom Scott is the pen name of the editor of Catholica, Brian Coyne.

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