Top 8 Non-Covid Reasons For Not Going To Mass
Top 8 Non-Covid Reasons For Not Going To Mass:
It’s too boring.
I’d rather worship God in my own way.
I don’t get anything out of mass or I’m not being “fed” when I attend church.
I don’t like it.
I’m too busy already.
I’m too distracted by my kids to get anything out of mass.
Sunday is my day for rest/fun and going to mass feels like work.
Church is just full of a bunch of judgmental hypocrites who if anything turn me off to Christianity and weaken my faith.
Instead of tackling these one by one, I’m going to offer an analogy that I think addresses all of these reasons.
Picture this. A married couple have extremely busy careers which have made it hard for them to spend much time together. Their marriage is suffering because of it. They’re drifting apart. So, the wife comes up with an idea. Every Sunday, they will have dinner together. She enjoys cooking and has agreed to do all the preparation. All the husband has to do is show up.
When Sunday arrives, he’s not looking forward to this dinner at all. He has about a million things he needs to get finished for work and if he does manage to get some free time, he’d much rather take some time for himself and watch football. He’s really not in the mood for conversation or effort for that matter.
He knows his wife has been working hard on this meal. He’s sure she’ll understand if he can’t make it. Maybe, he decides to skip the meal and watch his favorite team at the local sports bar. Or maybe he stays for the meal but hardly says two words all dinner. He’s just going through the motions. His mind is elsewhere and he is constantly checking his watch. She can tell that he doesn’t want to be there and he thinks, “I might as well have gone to that sports bar.”
Hopefully, it’s pretty clear in the story above that this relationship is in serious trouble. The problem is that the husband’s whole focus is on himself and whether this meal is doing anything for him. If he really loves his wife, his focus should be on her and what he can do to show his love her. I think it’s the same for us in our approach towards Jesus and going to mass.
Clearly, Jesus wants you to come to his meal at a minimum every Sunday---not to punish you but because he wants to have an incredible relationship with you. The food that he prepared for your meal is his very presence and the cost of the meal was his life. But he left the choice up to you whether to come because he knows, love can’t be forced. It must be a choice.
Renowned Catholic philosopher, Dietrich Von Hildebrand, said, “One should not forget that happiness is a result of love and not the motive for love.” His point is this. If we choose to love someone as a means to bring about our own happiness, we will not find happiness. We must love the person first for happiness to be the result (ironically, this is true in all of our relationships not just our relationship with Jesus). In the same way, if we go to mass mainly to find happiness, we won’t find it. We must go to mass to love Jesus for happiness to result.