By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Meet the Saturday vigil commando: She will go to Mass any day of the week, at practically any time of the day, except Sunday. She is a veritable fixture at the Saturday vigil Mass and will even return to the parish on Sundays faithfully once per month to help count the offertory collection, but will never return on Sunday for the purpose of going to Mass.
When a member of the faithful goes every week always and only to the Saturday vigil Mass, such a choice cannot possibly be due to necessity, but has become a matter of sheer convenience and a practical alienation from the Church’s obedience to the apostolic teaching to worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, the day the Lord Jesus rose from the dead for our salvation.
Because of the Saturday vigil Mass, it’s now possible for a Catholic to go to Mass every day of the week except Sunday. Although conceding ground in the culture war to the “weekend mentality” syndrome, where Sunday loses its primary place as the highest and first day of week, was not the motive for establishing the vigil, it has had that effect in the lives of many Catholics.
Abuse of the Saturday vigil means that now millions of Catholics everywhere get up in the morning five days a week to attend Mass but choose not to do so on Sunday, the one day every week when God commands we do so.
As one aspect of a years-long attempt to catechize the parish on the primacy of the Lord’s Day, I had a conversation with a member of the faithful who has attended the Saturday vigil Mass only in addition to frequent weekday Mass for many years. I explained for him that if we are able to go to Mass on Sunday we should do so. He then gestured to the others present in church prepared for the vigil to begin and said, “Then none of these people should be here.” He then informed me that he will continue to go on Saturdays.
Unfortunately if a family event conflicts with Saturday evening Mass he sometimes ends up not going to Mass at all on Sunday either.
Vatican II permissions for exceptions in case of need only such as Saturday vigil Mass have snowballed into the phenomenon in the Church of people living every week in practical contradiction to the scriptural and apostolic faith itself. The apostles mandated Sunday worship on the Lord’s Day and yet, as in the case of what I call my “Saturday vigil commandos,” many Catholics can go almost a lifetime, for reasons of convenience only, with never attending a single Sunday Mass.
A faith expressed as a search for convenience can gradually be seen as itself an inconvenience. Why have so many families fallen away from practicing the faith as the Church does on Sunday? This is often the case because of things parents say when choosing to attend the Saturday vigil Mass, such as, “Let’s get it out of the way.”
The necessity of teaching all of our children that God is the greatest and the highest Good is incompatible with acting as if He is an inconvenience. When we act as if worshiping God on Sunday when He asks us to do so is an inconvenience, we act as if God is an inconvenience. We gladly inconvenience ourselves throughout life for those we love.
It’s fair to ask, “Is this a big deal?” Many would say it’s a non-issue and self-righteously castigate anyone with the temerity to force the conversation. Sunday, however, is important to the Church because it is important to our salvation: Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. The apostles, those with the authority to establish the Church and teach with the authority of Christ, handed down the teaching that the Lord’s Day is to be kept holy by doing as the Lord commanded us in memory of Him in the celebration of Holy Mass.
Very little catechesis was offered when all the “new things” were chaotically fielded after Vatican II, the Saturday vigil Mass being one of these. I have taken the time to explain to my parishioners over a period of six years that, if they are able to go to Mass on Sunday, they should not go on Saturday evening in its place. Yes, Saturday vigil Mass “fulfills the obligation” to keep the Lord’s Day holy. The Mass is offered, however, for those who through no choice of their own are unable to attend on Sunday — that is, for reasons of work, travel, or another situation beyond their control. That would be okay if we were simply servants who do only as they are commanded.
Jesus Christ, however, has made it clear that we are now in fact His friends. We are no longer to be satisfied with doing only as we have been commanded but rather, in love, to fulfill the law by doing what we ought as those who know that “for freedom Christ has set us free.”
An American archbishop who serves on the USCCB canon law committee once shared with me that the Saturday vigil Mass should not be offered unless it is needed. Granted this is logistically very difficult to handle in a parish context and ends up being workable only if it is scheduled every week in contradistinction to the intent of the legislator. But the intent of the Church to urge against forsaking the preeminence of the Lord’s Day for every Christian remains.
Is there a connection between electing to never attend Mass on the Lord’s Day and faithfully working the polls at every election for a pro-abortion political party while saying that a pro-abortion national elected leader is “wonderful” and that one can’t understand why people criticize him? I certainly can’t say so for sure and I’m still working it out, but I’m beginning to wonder if indeed there is.
@MCITLFrAphorism
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