Sunday Mass: Not just another wasted hour

September 3, 2009

Catholics find many reasons not to attend Mass. It may be a busy life, an bothersome observation, or a feeling that it is unnecessary altogether, but these are mere excuses that emphasize how spiritually lost we are and how much we need guidance from the church.

For a long time, it was not on my priority list. I found myself asking my friends to hang out on Sundays just so I wouldn’t have to go to church. These weekend outings eventually replaced my spirituality and caused me to lose focus in God; I felt as if I wasn’t Catholic. I thought I could do it alone, but I discovered Catholics need some sort of a community to obtain support, love, and share in both the strain and progress.

When Catholics pray and worship in a community, they realize that the people are the source of God’s presence. “There is a sense of belonging when surrounded by similarly struggling people in church,” said Ann Tabora, theology teacher and moderator of CMT. “Belonging to a community of faith means you are part of a global event. People in Europe and the Philippines are participating in the same celebration as we do.”

What if you don’t see the positive influence of the church community? Catholics may see church as hypocritical or boring. “They might not like the priest or the way the choir is singing. They let the small annoyances of daily life get in the way of their relationship with God,” Tabora explained. Church should not be looked at as an institution of people rather an institution of God. The human flaws found in church never overpower the focus on the actual worship.
In such a stressful and preoccupied world, we often give up on church and find alternatives to maintaining spirituality. When I wasn’t going to church, I relied on my own moral system and modeled things from the media and experience. What I learned was that spirituality is not only dependent on personal standards. There needs to be structure. I couldn’t stand the inapplicable scripture passages and long wait for bread and wine, but I realized that it was the discipline in discovering the meaning of these things that mattered.

Without the church, it would be difficult for us to find a sacred space for personal nurturing and recharging with so many distractions. Those who complain that they don’t have the one hour for church should understand the necessity of sacrifice when developing spirituality. “Liturgy is our work. ‘Liturgy’ literally means ‘the work of the people’. It’s our prayer that completes the cycle of the church,” Tabora claimed. Ultimately, it’s our presence in church that gets us closer to God.

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