Holy Days of Non-Obligation
The last couple of years many of our Catholic Holy Days have fallen close enough to a Sunday to put them in the category of what I often call Holy Days of Non-Obligation. You see, the bishops of the United States have come to the pastoral conclusion that it may be too much of a burden for many people to have the obligation to attend mass two days in a row. So when certain holy days fall next to a Sunday, the obligation to take part in the Eucharist is lifted. The practice of both transferring certain Holy Days to Sunday (like the Ascension) and lifting the obligation to participate in Holy Day masses during certain years continues to disturb me. Don’t get me wrong, I am not questioning our bishops’ authority to make these decisions, but I am not sure that this practice is building a more solid foundation for the spiritual growth of our Church. In all honesty, I believe that our bishops are simply trying to respond to their people in a way that is not overbearing, while at the same time continuing to support our tradition of prayer around certain days of the year. But there is still the fact that even when the obligation to attend has not been lifted, the participation by the faithful is low.
I think the thing that most disturbs me about the lack of participation in our Holy Days and even much of the participation that does occur is that we have centered much of this participation around being obliged to do so. When I have spoken about this issue to many of my Orthodox friends they have gently reminded me that ultimately we should come to these Holy Days to celebrate the Eucharist out of love and thanksgiving, not simply out of obligation. Perhaps a good analogy is the family celebration of a child’s birthday. Certainly there is some sense of obligation to celebrate our children’s birthdays, but ultimately we do so out of love for them and to give thanks to God for the gift they are to us. And I dare say that if that same child’s graduation fell the day before their birthday, we wouldn’t feel the need to skip one simply because there was too much to celebrate. One way in which my Orthodox friends make the celebration of the Assumption (or as they refer to it, the Dormition) more meaningful is a two week fast that precedes it. Similar to the Lenten Fast that precedes Easter, the Dormition Fast reminds them of the importance of this feast.
It seems to me that the real issue when it comes to Holy Days is that we have made them too much about the rules and not enough about understanding why the early Church saw them as important. Let me share an exchange from this past weekend that illustrates the point. A woman approached me to ask if the Assumption is a Holy Day of Obligation this year. I replied that it was not, but it is still an important feast day. I invited her to consider attending mass even though she was not obligated to which she declined. When I asked what she would have done if it were a Holy Day of Obligation, she said she would rearrange her schedule to attend. Conversations like this always make me a bit sad, as it would seem that many of us are missing the point of Holy Days altogether. The point is not that God is going to be mad if we don’t attend mass on these days. The point is that these days have been set aside to remember and give thanks for some of the most extraordinary events in human history. An example of what this might look like in the secular realm is our celebration each year of Independence Day. As far as I know, there is no obligation to celebrate this national holiday (a word that looks very similar to holy day, by the way) yet many businesses shut down, we gather with friends and family to share a meal, we shoot off fireworks, and most importantly we give thanks for the blessings bestowed upon our nation.
One way that I am attempting to promote our annual Holy Days this coming year is the result of an observation by a parishioner who pointed out that when our parish schedules significantly less masses on these days it communicates clearly that we don’t really expect very many people to attend. As a result of his observation, we have scheduled more opportunities for the faithful to participate this year at St. Thomas. My hope is that these additional masses will be an encouragement to our parishioners to come together in prayer on our Holy Days, both those of obligation and non-obligation.
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