The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 282: The Sunday Obligation (2025)

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Why are Catholics obligated to attend Mass every Sunday? The Catechism teaches us today about the centrality of the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. Fr. Mike emphasizes that Sunday Mass is at the heart of our worship because it is the participation in the representation of the Paschal Mystery. He invites us to honor the Sunday obligation out of love for Jesus. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2177-2183. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 282. We are reading paragraph 2177 to 2183. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading

plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 282. Yesterday we started talking about the Lord's Day. We started talking about the Third Commandment. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. We know that the Sabbath day has been transferred from Saturday, right, that seventh day of the week, to the eighth day, the first day of the week, which is Sunday, the Lord's Day, the Day of Resurrection, because as we heard yesterday, Sunday is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. Now, because of that, yes, we're invited into rest. In fact, we're commanded into rest. We're also invited slash commanded into worship.

And we recognize that the Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the church's life. There is nothing more important that we do than the Sunday, that is the heart of everything. It is our participation in the representation of the paschal mystery. So yes, the church is called and actually commanded to take care of the poor. The church is commanded to spread the gospel. Yes, absolutely, completely. At the heart of that is the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. Therefore, we're going to talk about this. It's a holy day, every Sunday, holy day of obligation as well as some of the other days. Now that goes back to the very beginnings of Christianity. And so we're called, again, called slash commanded to fulfill

the Sunday obligation. We're going to talk about how we do that today. And so to open our hearts, because I know that this is one of those aspects. I mentioned yesterday when it came to rest, which we're also talking about rest tomorrow, when it came to rest yesterday. And I said, yeah, there's some of these things that I'm convicted about. They bring to the surface some challenges that I realize, man, I don't do this the way I should. You might be someone who is convicted, very convicted, deeply convicted, about the need, the necessity to live up to the obligation, the commandment to go to Mass every single Sunday. We'll talk about that today. So open our hearts to allow our minds, our hearts, our wills, our everything to be convicted by the Lord's command. So we pray, Father in

heaven, in Jesus' name, we ask you to please receive our thanks, receive our praise, receive the worship that we owe you. And Lord God, please send your Holy Spirit in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, to allow us to be moved by love of you. Jesus, you said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Lord God, help us. Help us to love you by keeping your commandment to do this, this Eucharist in memory of you. Help us to love you by listening to you and obeying you in every way, but especially in this way, by honoring your Holy Eucharist, by honoring your paschal mystery every single Sunday. Lord God, please help us. Meet us in our need, meet us in our weakness, and give us your grace. and give us your strength. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 282. We are reading paragraphs 2177 to 2183. The Sunday Eucharist. The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and His Eucharist is at the heart of the church's life. Sunday is the day on which the pascal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the Universal church. The Code of canon law further states, also to be observed are the day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the ascension of Christ, the feast of the body and blood of Christ, the feast of Mary, the mother of God, her immaculate conception, her assumption, the feast of St. Joseph, the feast of the apostles, saints, Peter, and Paul, and the feast of all saints. This practice

of the Christian assembly dates from the beginnings of the apostolic age. The letter to the Hebrews reminds the faithful not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another. Tradition preserves the memory of an ever-timely exhortation. Come to church early. Approach the Lord and confess your sins. Repent in prayer. Be present at the sacred and divine liturgy. Conclude its prayer, and do not leave before the dismissal. We have often said, this day is given to you for prayer and rest. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. A parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church. The pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd

under the authority of the diocese and bishop. It is the place where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life. It gathers them together in this celebration. It teaches Christ's saving doctrine. It practices the church. of the Lord in good works and brotherly love. St. John Chrysysm stated, You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude,

where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more, the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests. The Sunday obligation. The precept of the church specifies the law of the Lord more precisely.

On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are bound to participate in the mass. The precept of participating in the mass is satisfied by assistance at a mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day. The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation unless excused for a serious reason, for example, illness, the cure of infants, or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin. Participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is a testimony

of belonging and of being faithful to Christ and to his church. The faithful give witness by this to their communion in faith and charity. Together, they testify to God's holiness and their hope of salvation. They strengthen one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Code of Canon law states, because of a lack of sacred minister, or for other grave cause, participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible. It is specially recommended that the faithful take part in the liturgy of the word if it is celebrated in the parish church or in another sacred place, according to the prescriptions of the dioces and bishop,

or engage in prayer for an appropriate amount of time personally, or in a family, or as occasion offers, in groups of families. Right, there we have it, paragraph 2177 to 21, 83. three. You guys, as I said, there is something so powerful. We have to understand the centrality of the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. Again, 2177, the Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the church's life. Again, here is Kodokan Law that says Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal church. It goes on,

paragraph 2177 goes on to specify the other holy days of obligation. And this dates from the very beginning. I don't know if you caught this, but in paragraph 2178, it quotes the letter to the Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, where it reminds the faithful, not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another, to come together for the celebration of the Eucharist. This is so important for every single one of us. It's absolutely essential.

Again, remember what Jesus said. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And yes, his great commandment, love one another as I've loved you. As a father has loved me, so I love you. You don't remain in my love. Yes. But Christ's commandment also, on the night of his betrayal, on the night before he died, Jesus is a great commandment in so many ways.

I say great commandment, not in terms of love the Lord God with all your heart, my soul, and strength, and the sadder one as yourself. You know, we already talked about this. But the great commandment that Jesus gives to his disciples, the night he was betrayed the night before his death is take this all of you and eat of it do this in memory of me that's so important for us we need to understand that to love Jesus is to do what he says and what he says to do among other things but i say that at the center of what he says to do is when he says do this and that is so so important now paragraph 2179 gives us the definition

of a parish. A parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful, established on a stable basis within a particular church, basically in a diocese, the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the dioces and bishop. Okay, there we go. But that's the place where all the people get to gather. And so I don't know if you know this, but it is pretty important if you're a Catholic to be registered at a parish, to say, okay, this is my parish, this is the place that I abide in in so many ways, right? This is the place where I come together and I belong. I come together and I worship. Now, as a Catholic, you belong to every Catholic church around the world, right?

As a Catholic, you're part of the body of Christ. And so every Catholic church is, in a certain sense, your Catholic church, right? And yet, there is something that we're called to do. We're called to belong to a parish. And not just be registered, so now, yeah, now I pay or all those kind of things. But we're called to be committed to a parish because we recognize that we're meant to come together. That quote from St. John Christ's system is so important where he highlights, you cannot pray at home as at church.

That is so true. I mean, yes, you can pray at home and please pray at home. He also could say you can't pray in the woods as at church, although, of course, you can pray in the woods or pray in the mountains or pray in the great lakes, all these places. Those are places of prayer, but you can't pray at home the way you pray in the church, where there's a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one heart, and where there is something more.

The union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests, And that is so important. I mean, all of those things are good. Union of minds, a court of the souls, bond of charity. But what's also essential? The prayers of the priests. We need the ministerial priesthood in order to have the Eucharist. In order to do this in memory of Jesus, we need that. We need them. And so we have an obligation to go to the parish. We have an obligation to go to mass. That's what paragraph 2180 through 2183 talk about, right? That we have an obligation to present ourselves to the Lord to worship God in the Mass every single Sunday. Now, the end of paragraph

2180 specifies. It says, the precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a mass, which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite, either on the Holy Day or on the evening of the preceding day. Now, I don't know if we've talked about this yet, but why would it be on the evening of the preceding day? Well, according to the Jewish right of marking time, as sun falls, that's the beginning of the next day. So if you look at Genesis chapter 1, When that day ends with sunfall, the next day has begun. So the next day begins at sunfall. Therefore, we kind of quote unquote count it if you do the vigil mass the night before

the actual day. Now, paragraph 2181, the Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. We just like pause on that for a second. Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice that without the mass, You know, back in the day, there was a time where there were these mortars. So under Roman occupation, under Roman rule, essentially, there were Christians. And at one point, it was illegal to go to Mass. This is a story I came across in a book written by Dr. Scott Hahn. At one point, he was recounting that there's this whole group of, you know, community, basically what would have amounted to a parish back in the early church. And the dictate was not to go to Mass. Now, Catholics said, I have to go to Mass. So they went and the Romans knew that they they'd be there. And so every one of them, when they went to mass, they arrested them as they were leaving the mass. And as they were being led into the arena or wherever it was, they were going to be martyred. They said, why would you do that? Why in the world would you go to mass even though you knew

that you'd be killed for it? And the response was so powerful and so profound. It was we cannot live without the mass. He said that mass is what makes us Christians. We wouldn't be Christians without the that Christians make the mass and the mass makes us Christians. Something like that. It's so powerful and that's so true. The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For that reason, we're obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation. Unless, no, this is important for us, unless excused for a serious reason.

For example, if you're ill, if you're taking care of an infant, we're going to talk about this later on. If you have a job where your job is to care for others, there might be some valid reasons why you may not be able to make it to mass. There are some serious reasons. Now, the next piece is something that I think, I want to highlight this. If I could highlight my voice right now, this would be the thing.

If I could put an asterisk by the thing I'm going to say next, it's so important. It says this. It says, yes, we're obliged to participate, unless excuse for a serious reason, or dispensed by their own pastor. This is important. Your pastor can dispense you from the Sunday obligation.

So here's an example. I live in Northern Minnesota. And so a lot of people up in Northern Minnesota will vacation in the boundary waters, right? So in the boundary waters, you are miles and miles and miles, days sometimes from civilization. And say you go into the wilderness and you go there over a weekend. And there's no way. There's no way in imaginable that you could ever possibly make it to Sunday Mass. Now, rather than just getting up to the woods and saying, ah, you know, I can't do it.

What you can do is you can ask your pastor. You can say, you know, call up Father and say, father, my family and I are going on vacation up to the boundary waters and we're not able to make the mass. Could you give us a dispensation? He has the authority to give you dispensation. Now, it's not the same thing if you were to say, hey, father, we're going on vacation to, I don't know, Cancun? Can we have a dispensation for mass? Because here's the thing. In Cancun, you have the ability to go to mass. They have, I know this about Cancun. They have Catholic churches there. And actually, I'm going on vacation. We're going to South Dakota. You know what? They even

have Catholic churches in South Dakota. Guys, this will blow your mind. If you go on vacation to Wisconsin, they even have Catholic churches in Wisconsin. I know, believe it or not. But it's different if I can't make it to be able to say, I'm not just going to excuse myself, I'm going to ask for permission to be dispensed from this obligation. Now, what's happening in that? Is it just the church trying to exercise control and authority? I would argue no.

What I would argue is this, remember the church is a family. We're the family of God. Imagine a family that maybe not your family, but imagine a family that gets together every single Sunday for brunch or for some kind of, you know, family meal. And this is really important. In fact, this is what, you know, grandma and grandpa established and it's been going on for the last couple generations. It's a really, really big deal. And it's so big that, you know, to miss it, to, not just miss, to skip it would be, to be saying something to your family. Now, I can take it on myself. I'm just going to excuse myself. That's one thing I could do, or I could ask permission.

And when I'm asking permission, what I'm doing is I'm placing myself under the authority. of the patriarch or matriarch, right? I'm placing myself under the authority of grandma or grandpa, I placing myself under the authority of my parents and saying, may I be excused? And you realize the difference, the difference is happening there when it's like, I'm going to excuse myself versus may I be excused. Something similar is happening when it comes to asking for a dispensation by your pastor. I don't know of any pastor who, when the parishioners had given him a good reason, that he didn't say, of course, I'm so glad as priests, we're so glad when someone asks because we realize, well, this person takes their Sunday obligation seriously. So here's probably

what will happen. Now, what you're going to do from now on is if you absolutely cannot make it to mass, right, you're in the boundary waters. You're somewhere else by just getting to mass is precluded, right? It's just not going to work. Rather than excuse yourself, you just contact your pastor. He will happily, my guess is he will happily say, thank you for asking your dispensed. He might then go on to say, would you be able to read the readings for that day, especially for our vacation with your family. Okay, take some time and as a family, read those readings and maybe pray a decade of the rosary, something like this, right? Take some time and still let it be the Lord's Day. It's not like, oh, you've got a freebie today. Just go ahead and do whatever you

want. You'll probably give you some direction about, okay, here's a way you can sanctify that day since you are unable to make it to Mass. So keep that in mind. But know this, know that you get to ask for dispensation by your pastor. 2181 ends that paragraph by saying, those who deliberately fail in this obligation, commit a grave sin. If I intentionally miss Mass, if I intentionally, essentially what it is is skip mass, I'm committing a grave sin. Keep that in mind. It's just so, so important. Because why? 2182, participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is a testimony of belonging and of being faithful to Christ and his church. So important. It is a testimony of belonging to and being faithful to Christ and to his church.

It's so essential and so important for all of us. As I said, you know, these commandments are going to be convicting for many of us, consoling for many of us today. If it's consoling because that's what you've been living, awesome, so good. If it's convicting because it's now challenging you to do something different, amazing. Last story, last little thing. I'm so sorry, this is a little bit longer. I get ramped up.

I don't know if I shared this story before, but years ago, we had a young woman in our RCIA class, so the right of Christian and nation creation for adults. So she was becoming Catholic, the process of becoming Catholic. And at one point, we came across, I mean, we covered the commandments at the end of the year. So she'd been going to RCIA faithfully, been going to Mass pretty faithfully, and we get to this commandment. We highlight paragraph 2181. That is absolutely clear that those who deliberately fail in this obligation committed grave sin.

And she was getting married to a young man who was Catholic. And she talked to him about it. And he's like, oh, don't worry about it. Because she was concerned. She was like, I don't know if I can promise that I'll go to Mass every Sunday. I don't know if I can do that. And he was like, ah, don't worry about it. We miss all the time.

His family was also the same way. Like, oh, don't worry about this. I mean, we skip mass all the time too. It's not that big of a deal. But she was so not just intellectually honest. She was so spiritually honest with the Lord that she got to the end of our CIA. And before the Easter vigil, when she would have come into the Catholic Church, that was the schedule we were on, she bailed.

She said, I can't do this. Because of this, because she was aware of herself and her own hesitation about, I don't think that I can commit to coming to Mass every single Sunday in Holy Day of obligation. Therefore, she absented herself from becoming Catholic. And I mean, we met. We tried to talk about it. And I was clear about this, of course, at the same time, talking about how, yes, take it seriously, but don't let it be an obstacle. Don't let your fear be the thing that gets in your way. Don't let your fear of your own failure or potential failure get in your way. But she was like, I just can't do it. So, you know, time went on. And that year she graduated

and moved on. I think she was in graduate school at the time, moved on, moved away. And I just always prayed for her. They got married and everything. I had a big start of their life together and had some children. Whenever she came to mind, whenever we talked about this, I'd always just pray for her because it was just so, she was so honest about the whole thing, right? She was so fearful about not being able to live up to it, but also had such integrity, right? I'm not going to stand up and say something that I don't believe I'll actually be able to do. Like, remember we talked about, oh, this couple days ago. That's what she was essentially saying. I'm not going to stand up and make a false oath.

I'm not going to stand up and say that I'm going to do this when I don't think I'm actually going to do this. Prayed for her again and again. I told me the story to drag on. I prayed for her so much. A couple years after that. Maybe, I don't know, between five and ten years later, I got a letter from her.

And the letter was, hey, you'd be happy to know that I wrestled through this and struggled through this and realized that I was letting my fear get in the way of my yes to the Lord. I knew this was all true. I knew that the Eucharist really is Jesus, and I knew he's calling me, commanding me to worship him every Sunday, in season, out of season, convenient or inconvenient. But I let my fear of not being able to do it. Let my fear of failure stop me. But this last year, she said, I went through RCAA

again, and you'd be happy to know at the Easter vigil, I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church. And now here I am, you know, launching this rest of her life as a Catholic. And I just, you know, at the time she backed out, I was so impressed by her integrity. At the same time, she let fear get in the way of her faith. I mean, she truly let fear get in the way of that next step. Yet, it was such a great testimony to the fact that even though her fiancé and her fiance's family was like, oh, don't worry about it. She was like, no, no, no. This is serious. This is what the Lord has asked of all of us, including of me, if I become Catholic. I'm not going to just dismiss that out of hand because you happen to dismiss it out of hand or because others happen

to dismiss it out of hand. If I'm going to stand up and say, I'm going to be Catholic all the way took her a little longer but eventually that grace that faith overcame her fear and here she is now in full communion with the church raising children in full communion with the church and also helping her husband be the kind of man who also says yeah that's true i'm not just going to i'm not going to make excuses for myself we as a family we are going to mass every sunday every holy day we're doing our absolute best in that sense of like echoing joshua's words as for me and my family we will serve the Lord. You guys, it's just incredible. So I'm inspired by them. I'm inspired by you. Here we are on day 282. Thank you so much for being part of this journey. Please pray for each other.

Because again, as we hit these commandments, we know that every one of us is going to be convicted in different ways, consoled in other ways. We need each other's prayers. We need God's grace. So pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.