Adsum

September 2004

Observation of Sunday When Mass Attendance is Impossible

More Answers to Today's Moral Problems
by Very Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., S.T.D., L.L.D., L.J.D.

Question: If the members of a Catholic family living far away from the church are unable on this account to attend Mass on Sunday, are they bound by the divine law, promulgated in the third commandment, to devote some portion of the Sunday to private worship?

Answer: The solution of this question goes back to the problem of the basis of the law prescribing the sancti-fication of Sunday. Under the Old Dispensation the divine law, contained in the third commandment, imposed on the chosen people the obligation to observe the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, as the Lord's Day. However, this precept, like the other ceremonial prescriptions of the Old Law, ceased with the promulgation of the New Law (Cf. St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., MI, q. 103, a. 3).

In the Christian dispensation the Lord's Day has become the first day of the week. Some theologians have held that the sanctification of Sunday is commanded by divine-positive law, but it is the more common opinion that this duty arises from ecclesiastical legislation (Cf. Damen, Theologia Moralis [Turin, 1947], I, n. 593).

For the due observance of Sunday the Church has commanded that Christians attend Mass and abstain from servile work as well as from certain other types of activity, such as holding court. The people described by the questioner must abstain from forbidden work, as far as they are able; but, in the presumption that they are excused from hearing Mass by reason of distance from the church, they are not bound to perform any special acts of worship on Sunday — though they must pray, make acts of the theological virtues, etc., with sufficient frequency and regularity throughout the year. Needless to say, however, such persons should be strongly urged to set aside a period of time on Sunday for devotional acts, such as reading the Mass of the day in the vernacular and reciting the rosary. It should be noted also that according to some theologians there is a divine-positive precept of hearing Mass several times in the year (Cf. Damen, op. cit., I, n. 529), though others deny that such a precept exists (Cf. Guiniven, The Precept of Hearing Mass [Washington, D. C.: C.U.A. Press. 1942], 56).

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