THE CALL TO CONTINUING CONVERSION : REGULAR OPPORTUNITY VS. ROTE OBLIGATION..........

**********THIS DAY IN SACRAMENTO CATHOLIC CHURCH HISTORY**********
The Most Reverend +Patrick Manogue, born in Reisk, Kilmanagh, County Kilkenny Ireland, who shared in the California Gold Rush more than a century and a half ago as a miner, then becoming a priest and going on to become the 1st Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, May 28, 1886; died one hundred and fifteen years ago today - February 27, 1895.....................................

Joined with the necessity of Repentance for our sins the Christian experience of Lent is also very much about believers choosing to answer the Call to Continuing Conversion. Our Catholic Christian Faith is not a magical formula that changes us into disciples. Rather, what we profess to believe and follow, are sacred mysteries of Scripture and Tradition, and Gospel values that shape our teachings, prayers, worship, and ministries, as we practice our discipleship of Jesus the Christ. As the Second Vatican Council affirmed four and a half decades ago, "the Source and Summit" of our Christian Faith and Discipleship, is, "the Eucharist". The Eucharist commemorates and renews the Paschal Mystery of Jesus, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection, He endured for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, the celebration of the Eucharist, at Catholic Mass, is the most sacred encounter of our lives and should be the first fruit of our Christian Discipleship and a universal priority of members of the Community of Believers. Yet the sad reality is fat too many of the 1.2 billion plus Catholics in the world, fail to attend Sunday Mass. In the Sacramento Diocese which currently shows a Catholic population of 950,000 persons, weekly Sunday Mass attendance last year was counted as being 140,000 Catholics, less than fifteen percent of the total number. So there is a very strong argument for evangelizing, forming, and inviting, Catholics to Come Home.....But the deficiency in the practice of Sunday Mass is not limited to the non-attending. Over the two dozen years of my ordained ministry and four and a half decades of attending Mass, I have been struck by the dozens of practicing Catholics each Sunday who nonchalantly arrive late, or unabashedly leave early, from Mass. And it is true in all eleven parishes I have ministered in and virtually all Catholic parishes. Why ? Are they so busy, impatient, pressed for time, or otherwise prioritized, that they give God, Faith, and the right and responsibility to Worship, the short shrift, taking it for granted ? Would those same Catholics treat appointments with a doctor, lawyer, or even a close friend, that way - by intentionally arriving late for a meeting, or walking out before it was finished ? Why then do they treat their relationship with God and the Community of Believers on Sunday, the Lord's Day, with such lesser respect ? In my eighteen years attending ecumenical events and Sunday Worship services in other Christian churches, I have not observed this occurrence, as most worshipers arrive several minutes before worship begins and only those with a ministry responsibility, such as fellowship and hospitality, leave the church building before the service ends. So are Protestants more attentive to making Sunday worship a priority ? Or are Catholics more obligation driven, and much less opportunity oriented, when it comes to being present and participating at Sunday Mass ? On the handful of occasions I have questioned those who were leaving Sunday Mass early, some as soon as at the praying of the Our Father or a sizable number who egregiously walk right out of the church from the Communion line after receiving the Eucharist, their sheepish responses when they responded at all, was to mumble an excuse, or shrug their shoulders, while others passed me by hurriedly, as though I was pricking their early departing conscience by merely standing there. And for what do they impoverish the Liturgy and their presence at Mass, but for several minutes of lazy time hurrying off to some other obviously, more important activity? Selfishly filling an obligation to attend without selflessly accepting the invitation to fulfill the opportunity to faithfully celebrate the prayerful and ministerial worship of God in the entirety of the Sunday Mass. A rote obligation, incompletely carried out is insufficient to truly being a wholehearted worshiper of God, or communicant with the Church. Authentic and sincere Catholic-Christians take the regular opportunity of Sunday Worship to fully enter into the Word of God and the Eucharist, as well as spend time in prayer, ministry, fellowship, and hospitality, with their fellow believers. Dashing in, or darting out, after the Sunday or Holyday Mass has begun, or before it concludes, is wrong and a sin of selfishness. Let us remember every Mass opens with the Sign of the Cross and closes with a final blessing in the Sign of the Cross. Anything less to our presence than that, is taking for granted the most precious and sacred mystery Faith, Creation, and Salvation History, have ever known..........
Praying That Catholics Will Truly And Fully Appreciate The Need To Be Unconditionally Present and Participating At The Whole Sunday Mass, Fr. Troy

POSTSCRIPT : After completing and publishing this blog column, I went over to the church to greet the 5:30 pm Massgoers. I arrived as Communion was being distributed and alas, at least two dozen persons, young, middle aged, elderly, were leaving Mass early. One man with his wife who were leaving actually said to me, "Standing here Father, to catch those of us sneaking out ?". I responded to him, "It is a Catholic disease we have to find a cure for".....