MASS MESS: If the Priest Screws Up, Have I Satisfied My Sunday Obligation?

I absolutely love the opportunity to attend Mass at different churches around the country: One day there’s a real sense of community, another day a solemn high Mass emphasizes the sacred, and then there’s an exuberant children’s liturgy that enkindles the Faith in young hearts. I love them all.

But THIS?!

Last Sunday at a church in a city I shall not name, the priest stood before his gathered congregation and said,

“Well, the air conditioning isn’t working quite as well as it should, so today we’ll skip the Gloria, the Second Reading and the Creed.”

Yes, that really happened. Then the homily, which was only okay, ran nearly 20 minutes. There was no urgency about distribution of the Eucharist. There were announcements–I assume just as many as there would be on an ordinary Sunday.

The only thing that was different was that three of the essential parts of the Mass were missing! And, as an aside, let me remind you that in most dioceses across the United States (including the one we were in), last Sunday was also the Solemnity of the Ascension. A great high feast–but we took a shortcut and skipped three parts of it!

Gack!

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Sadly, this is not really the worst case of liturgical abuse I’ve encountered in my years of church-hopping. I have found myself at feminist Masses when a nun read the gospel or a woman was “guest homilist.” I once attended a “balloon liturgy” which was, I hope, intended to be a paraliturgy, not a real Mass, but at which a well-intended nun painted a red heart on my cheek.

I remember one other time–again while we were traveling, so not in our hometown–when we found ourselves attending a Mass which was celebrated by a visiting priest. The visiting celebrant was not based in a parish but was, rather, director of a center for racial justice (or something like that). His homily was about the sin of racism, I recall, not about the readings of the day. But more importantly, there were two other things which disturbed me greatly:

• He changed the words of the Consecration. Instead of playing it straight, as required by the Catholic Church and as offered in chapels and churches all around the world, he instead bellowed a dramatic, “This is the Blood Red Wine of the Covenant….” As the imagery of the “blood red wine” rolled down the aisle and over the congregation gathered there, one couldn’t help but envision rioters’ heads being bashed against the cement.
• And when it was time for Communion, we walked forward unawares–and received, not an unleavened round host, but a small cube of dry black bread–really, a crouton.

I know for a fact that in diverging from the rubrics so seriously, the priest invalidated the Mass.

BUT HERE’S MY QUESTION:

Let us leave it to God to determine how to deal with the priest who thus deprived his entire congregation of a licit Sunday liturgy.  But what about me? Have I, by sitting in the pew at that church on that day, with that priest, failed to fulfill my Sunday obligation?

 The present Code of Canon Law reads:

“On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.”

It doesn’t say part or parts of the Mass. It is the expectation is that Catholics will attend a complete Mass. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation (excluding, of course, those who are ill or traveling, or who must work, or who for some reason are unable to attend) commit a grave sin.

Before the Second Vatican Council, it was common to refer to three parts of the Mass which one must not miss: the Offertory, the Consecration and the Communion. In subsequent years, though, in the post-Vatican II Novus Ordo liturgy, we refer instead to two main parts of the Mass: the Liturgy of the Word, when we hear the assigned readings for the day, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  There is no shaving off the first or last parts of the Mass in order to save time–It’s all important, and we are expected to be present.

SO HAVE I SINNED BY NOT ATTENDING A COMPLETE MASS?

My quick answer: No. I had intended to participate fully in the liturgy of the day, and it was not my fault that Father Joe Schmoe, who should know better, deprived me of the Mass I’d planned to attend.

But this is incontrovertible evidence that the Mass belongs, not to the individual priest or religious, not to the music director, but to the Church. The Mass is not to be used to advance one’s pet political positions, not altered to be “hip” or “cute” or “modern.” At Mass, the people of God come together in a shared expression of faith and worship. It is not a parade, not a popularity contest, not a game, not entertainment.

The priest is to “say the black and do the red.” That is, in the order of the liturgy the words of the Mass are published in black; the gestures are printed in red. The priest who is properly doing his job recognizes that the great gift of the Mass has been entrusted to him; and he will care for it gently, transmitting God’s word to the faithful–well, faithfully.

What happened at that parish last Sunday was abominable, but it was not my fault. However, I think that priest has some ‘splaining to do.