Just Not Feelin' it: When it Gets Tough to Attend Mass

"Mass is so boring...I've heard it all before..."

"I stopped going to Mass because I just don't feel comfortable/safe there anymore..."

"Why go to a church that is full of hypocrites...the people there say they are 'Christian,' and yet they are judgmental toward me/my family."

"Going to Mass at my parish used to make me feel good, now it does nothing for me."

We have all heard such statements from friends and family at various times. Perhaps we have said similar things ourselves. As true as each of these statement might be in one sense, they demonstrate the fact that most Catholics lose sight of the real purpose of the Mass.

I was listening to Catholic radio the other day and was reminded of the origin and purpose of the Mass. God wants us to love going to Mass, to feel supported by our parish community, to experience all of the great by-products of true Christian living, but, more than any other reason, we go to Mass to offer a sacrifice to God and to encounter Christ in the most powerful and life-changing way possible. Theologians have written full-length books to unpack this mystery, but one thing can be said briefly and with certainty about the Mass. We don't go to Mass because we feel like it. We go because God commands it. He commands it because we so desperately need it.

When it comes to attending Mass, we must ask ourselves a few questions: am I willing to put aside my feelings and preferences out of love for Christ and go to Mass, no matter what? Am I willing to feel bored out of love for Christ? To feel uncomfortable out of love for him? Am I willing to feel conflicted, uneasy, unhappy, judged, sleepy, or "unfulfilled" for his sake?

Faithfully attending Mass every Sunday and Holy Day sometimes requires small sacrifices. But as we continue to place God's will before our own feelings and opinions, we discover the joy of doing things God's way; the sensation of peace that comes from knowing that we are learning to love more perfectly. Then,  we can start to be part of the solution to various problems that may be associated with attending Mass at a particular parish. Sometimes, the reason a parish seems uninviting is because the parishioners are more focused on themselves and what they "get out of the Mass" than what they are giving!

We come to Mass to offer God our lives and to join the priest in offering to the Father the perpetual sacrifice of Christ. Our involvement and disposition during the celebration of the Mass, as well the way we encounter each other before and after Mass, are ways we lay people can make the sacrifice of the Mass more reverent, efficacious, and beautiful.

The Church invites us to celebrate the Mass in specific ways at specific times and when we make ourselves docile to the will of God by obeying the Church Jesus Christ established, we see more and more clearly what the Mass actually is:

..in celebrating the sacrifice of the Lamb, we are united to the heavenly ‘liturgy’ and become part of that great multitude which cries out: ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!’ (Rev 7:10). The Eucharist is truly a glimpse of heaven appearing on earth. It is a glorious ray of the heavenly Jerusalem which pierces the clouds of our history and lights up our journey.

                                                                                                                                                                 -Pope St. John Paul II

Ideally, we would all like to "feel good" about going to go to Mass, but, just like any other loving relationship, our relationship with God is not based on how we feel. The choice to sacrifice for and serve our beloved is much more indicative of love than is passing emotion. Good and pleasurable feelings often follow the choice we make to radically love another person, and the same thing goes for our relationship with God and our choice to faithfully attend Mass.

When we come or don't come to Mass based on our feelings, we fail to demonstrate to God our love for him, and we fail to play our unique role in Body of Christ. We also fail to receive the greatest source of grace and power God has ever given the human race.