I typed this line out on Sunday, December 22, trusting I would eventually come back and develop it into a full blog post. I had little desire to put forth the effort the look respectable and walk across the street to attend Mass that day. Recently, having just stumbled across an article from a very respectable person, who admits to not attending Sunday worship very often, I am finally going to finish this post. My heart goes out to this person who seemingly has not experienced what it is to participate in or even co-offer a mass as our Baptism calls us to. I still have no theological education outside of my brief experiences of ministry and participation in worship and a desire to praise the Lord that is itself a gift from God (Eucharistic prayer reference).
So why do we attend Mass every Sunday? I could look up an answer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but I could also ponder what I've learned over time about the Mass. I'm am only going to share a glimpse of my understanding of this matter. We have been commanded by our God to participate in worship of him, our Creator. If we did not do this on a regular basis, we would forget who is really in charge and begin to worship ourselves and make our own judgement about what is right and wrong - the beginnings of relativism which is situational for everyone. (Don't get me started on a such a rant. It won't be very logical until I've had time to think it through. Catholicism, by it's name, which means UNIVERSAL is opposed to relativism. Check out the words from Benedict XVI, in a quote from the article listed below.) Even those who fulfill our weekly obligation for Sunday Mass fall into such temptations.
In summary, I go to Mass every Sunday (and more often if I can), to keep from my own demise and corruption, which I still battle every day, to keep from worshiping myself and thinking I'm in control.
Words from a wise friend of mine. [One who doesn't take themselves too seriously] means living with a
"Christian optimism that recognizes
who is in charge and responds in JOY."
who is in charge and responds in JOY."
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“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”
This is a warning that Pope Benedict has not tired of repeating during his pontificate.
Relativism is a poison. It attacks our most human capacity, the capacity to seek and know the truth, including the moral truth. A dictatorship of relativism imposes by real cultural force (and even by political force) a no-standard standard, a command that all must imbibe this poison.
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/benjamin-wiker/benedict-vs.-the-dictatorship-of-relativism/#ixzz2srYeM0er
