Dear Parishioners,
It is hard to believe that August is upon us. It seems as if we were just looking forward to summer and all the pleasures associated with that time – and now, we are approaching the returns to school, the completion of summer vacations, and the time when things here at our parish get busier again.
We call them vacations, but the British call them “holidays.” It does not take a genius to see that the words “holiday” and “holy day” share the same roots. There was a time when the only “holidays” people experienced were indeed “holy days.” That included Sunday, to be sure, but the reason people had these “holy days” was to celebrate religious times and occasions.
An important facet of the concept of stewardship is our practice of the faith – our commitment to fulfill what the Church views as our duties related to our beliefs. Most of us, as Catholics, are very familiar with the term “Holy Day of Obligation.” In fact, there is one this month – Tuesday, Aug. 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A solemnity is a Feast Day of the highest rank in the Church. According to the Church’s Code of Canon Law (1247), “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.”
Note that what this actually says is that Sunday – just like the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, Christmas, Immaculate Conception, and other holy days – is, in fact, a Holy Day of Obligation. Do we really think of our weekly attendance at Mass in that way? Certainly, our parents and grandparents (and many of us as well) understood that we were supposed to go to Mass each Sunday, and there were other times during the Church year when we were expected to go to Mass — the Holy Days of Obligation.
Sometimes in our busy lives, we lose sight of how important this is. As I indicated earlier in this letter, these are holy days – these are days (including every Sunday) when we need to make the effort and commitment to participate in the Mass. The Code of Canon Law that I quoted earlier continues as follows: “Moreover, they [that means you and me] are to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body” (1247).
“Rendered to God” means that our Mass attendance is a gift to God. Stewardship, of course, is how we take the gifts God has given us, use those gifts responsibly, and then return them and share them with the Lord and those around us. Although going to Mass is a gift to the Lord, it is also a gift to our community and to ourselves as well. We need that time to step back from our daily worries and concerns, and to look deeper into the meaning of living and of the importance of our relationship with God.
I would like each of us to consider just how important it is to attend Mass. If we are really going to be committed to this concept of stewardship, we need to realize the significance of setting aside time each week, and on those other designated holy days to be with the Lord and with our parish community at Mass. We must be committed to living out our Catholic faith properly and completely.
In Christ,
Rev. Msgr. Leo J. Enlow