Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I love this time of year. I don’t think the skies are ever bluer than during the month of September. It’s just warm enough not to be cold, and it’s cool enough not to be hot. The leaves are just starting to change. And this year, we are another week closer to moving into our new church. The excitement builds!

Time and timing are important. I think that it’s time to talk again about getting to Mass on time, and staying at Mass until the end, or when the closing hymn is finished. In the last few weeks, I have noticed a great number of folks coming to Mass late, and quite a few leaving early. This may be acceptable at some other places, It is not acceptable here at St. Maria Goretti. God and His Church ask that we make a commitment to attending Mass together as a community once a week. They are not asking that we go to Mass every day, or every other day, or even twice a week. One hour a week is not much compared to the other 167 hours of the week that God gives us to work, play, eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom. It has always seemed to me that we should be able to give God our best hour of the week. When we go to Sunday Mass, it should be our finest hour, out of thanksgiving and praise for all the other hours. There is something terribly, terribly wrong with being in such a rush that we can’t get here on time, or that we can’t stay the couple of extra minutes at the end of Mass until the closing hymn is done. This sends a message. It sends a message to God. It sends a message to our brothers and sisters. It sends a message to our kids. It sends a message to everybody. NOBODY IS THAT BUSY! If you are too busy to give God one, whole hour a week at Sunday Mass, then you are TOO busy period and you should be making some changes in your life. The answer is not to cut corners and come late or leave early. The answer is to make a commitment and make the necessary plans to get here on time and to be able to stay until Mass is over. Being busy is not a valid excuse when God is only asking for one hour.

I find it unbelievable that folks that would never, ever be late for a Colt’s or Pacer’s game, or a movie, or even a haircut appointment, have no problem at all coming to Mass late every week! Isn’t it really a matter of what we make a priority in our life? I’m not talking here about people who have that occasional “situation” and get here a couple of minutes late. I’m talking to the people who are coming every week late. There are some folks who truly don’t know that the Mass begins with the Sign of the Cross, because they have never been here for when we do it! Our Masses start at 4:30 PM on Saturday night, and at 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, 10:30 AM, and 5:00 PM on Sunday. This is not a ballgame, or a movie, or an appointment. This is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is a taste of Heaven while we are on earth. There are people who were martyred because they went to Mass. And we can’t get there on time? Come on, guys! We can do a lot better than that.

The same thing can be said of staying until the very end of Mass. This is a particular problem at 4:30 PM Mass on Saturday nights. It’s not a race to see who can get to Charleston’s first, folks. If you can’t stay until the end of Mass, then maybe you should be going to Mass at another time when you can stay for the whole thing.

Let me remind you that the Catholic Church teaches that missing Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation can be a mortal sin. It is always, unless you are sick, a serious sin. I would say that the same is true of people who consistently are late or are leaving early from Mass. If you are doing this, you are missing the point. I think that I am much less concerned about the actual getting here late and leaving early, than I am about a soul that doesn’t desperately want to be here when Mass starts, or a soul that doesn’t care enough about what has just happened at Communion, that you could walk out the door, with the Eucharist still in your mouth, and abandon the end of Mass and the community. We all need to pray for these brothers and sisters. This is not the way things are supposed to be. And if you are doing these things, you need to face up to some of these questions.

The Church is expecting more. We are becoming a more committed Church. The days of being a “Catholic” and “going through the motions” or 45 minutes on Sunday morning are over. It’s time to grow!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

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