Days of Obligation

Periodically throughout the year, the Church celebrates certain days called holy days of obligation. These are seen as occasions of supreme importance where a Christian is obligated to attend Mass. It is in fact a mortal sin to skip Mass on these days without serious reason. Examples of such occasions would be December 8 (Immaculate Conception) and August 15 (the Assumption of Mary). But did you know: every Sunday is actually a holy day of obligation. This means we are obligated to go to Mass every Sunday, not just whatever day is most convenient to us.

Today, though, the idea of being obligated to go to church may seem outdated or even off-putting. After all, isn’t my relationship with Jesus supposed to be more important than a bunch of rules? Is Jesus really sitting there and taking attendance? At the same time, though, obligations are a natural part of any relationship. We have obligations to our friends, our spouse, our children all the time. Is my kid’s birthday not an obligation? If I just skip my child’s birthday, without a serious reason such as being sick, won’t he be hurt and upset? If my best friend is getting married, is that not an obligation to attend the wedding or else hurt the relationship? 

When we talk about the “obligation” of these holy days, it is not an obligation in the sense of some random rule that God imposes on us. It is an obligation of love, just like birthdays and anniversaries. In fact, each of the Ten Commandments are the same way. The “rules” of our religion are “rules” of love, meant to teach us what it means to love properly and avoid hurting or upsetting our Beloved. May we learn from these instructions so that we may deepen our relationship with God each and every day!