Participation in Sunday Mass and the Aspect of Fulfilling the Third Commandment

What would have been in God’s mind when He gave the third commandment that is “My Day shall be held holy? In another circumstance we command  his people not to do any work on the Seventh Day, ie. Sabbath day. Who knows or in fact who cares at all? Anyway now we are not concerned about those Ten Commandments which God gave to the People of Israel through Moses. We – the new generation guys feel that it took place in the ancient age (Old Testament time).

What is our concern? Why we need to think about or obey those old commandments? For us everything is Jesus and his Two Commandments; the first being the Love of God and the second Love for others. We say that these two are important and we need to take care of only these two.

I write this not to harm anyone. But it is only my meditation on how I participate in the Sunday Holy Mass. It is not meant to hurt anyone as well.

As I am a working professional, I am in the office for all the days except Sunday. It means that I get only one holiday and that is Sunday on which I am to go to the church and offer all sorts of prayers. How deep I desire to sleep till late morning, without going to the chapel. But I do not get the chance to do that or I am scared of doing that as I feel bound to go to the chapel on Sundays.

If anyone feels that they were going to the church not because of obligation but because they love doing it because they love Jesus, they would be regular in the church. I am not so and I cannot claim that I love Jesus very deep. At this time I also remember those who are eager to participate in the Holy Mass but due to various reasons are not able to attend the Mass regularly.

Leave all these. What I want to say is just a small thing. You must ponder over your attitude with which you are attending the Holy Mass on Sundays. Is it for the sake of your ‘Christianhood’ that you are attending it? Sadly there are many who go to the Chapel on every Sunday just because they are scared of getting an INDECENT BURIAL or they feel disguised to be outside of the Church.

Are you very serious about your spiritual life? No man can have a real spirituality without first loving Holy Eucharist. Looking at the lives of great saints you will understand this. I would suggest you not to look at Sunday Masses as something we do out of compulsion. On the other end, we must think that we are fulfilling the third commandment of God.

I feel that just by attending the Holy Mass alone we are not fulfilling the third commandment entirely but still we need to do it with our most sincere heart and mind. Please do spend some additional hours in reading Bible, meditation on God’s great love, doing charity works and so on. In this way alone we can really keep the day holy. It must be considered as a HOLY DAY and not as a HOLIDAY.