Do we need to participate in Mass on Sunday?

Rather than giving it a negative connotation of obligation, we have positive reasons why participation in Mass is necessary: 1. In Mass, (called Divine Liturgy in the Eastern Church, including the Melkite Church - see next article on the richness of the Divine Liturgy), the sacrifice of Christ is offered to the Father for the forgiveness of sins, and for blessings on the community and the whole creation "Without me you can do nothing." Christ said to His disciples. Christ is "the offered and the offerer." In private prayer at home, the prayer lacks the sacrifice of Christ offered on our behalf for our sake. 2. In Mass, the whole community, and not only an individual, is praying the thanksgiving prayer. The Mass is the sublime thanksgiving for what the Trinity has done for us. This is part of the communion of saints. But more importantly, the community partakes of the body and blood of Christ "If you do not eat my body and drink my blood, there is no life in you." Because the Eucharist is a sign of communion in the same faith, we call reception of the Eucharist "communion." The Eucharist is the most important spiritual nourishment that Christ offers every one of us through the Church. We should approach it with reverence and without blemish. 3. In Mass, we share as a community, and as the People of God, in the day of rest, the "Sabbath", that God wanted His people to observe. Since it was a Sunday when Christ rose from the dead, we, the Church, celebrate it on Sunday. It is not only a union with the community but also a union with God at the same time in the day He ordained dedicated to remembering His love for us. Mass is meant for celebration within a community. It is not merely a setting for private prayer or meant as a supplement to our individual spiritual life. In the Mass, the sacrifice of Christ is offered to God the Father by the priest on behalf of the Christian community. Our faith teaches us that what we proclaim in the Eucharist, Christ's death and resurrection, is also made present in that very action by the power of God's love and goodness. This is the heart of our faith in the sacrament we call the Eucharist, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the real presence of Christ. Christian worship is based on the New Testament revelation of God as a "community" of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we are baptized into Christ we are made children of the Father and bearers of the Spirit, truly members by extension of the community of the Trinity. Together with all the baptized we are being joined together as a holy temple, "built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God" (Eph 2:22). We are enjoined to let ourselves be the living stones of this temple: "Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). The Church’s worship is precisely God’s instrument for making us a people, forming us into His kingdom-"The Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Thus we repeatedly pray in the Divine Liturgy for "unity in the faith and the communion in the Holy Spirit." Thus "communion" must not be narrowly understood as reception of a private share of the divine life through the Eucharist. Even the single prayer that Jesus taught his disciples starts with the words “Our Father.” We say “our” because we are collectively praying together in the community of the human race. Our sharing in the life of the Trinity includes the "communion" of all other believers and we become interrelated members of the Body of Christ. This communion is equally the basis for that closer unity which must take place among the members of the community manifested in works of charity for one another. This communion among believers presupposes communion with God and, hence, incorporates it. Divine worship in the Church, then, is inherently communal, uniting a particular gathering of people with the entire Christian community throughout space and time-in fact with the entire created cosmos- through our union with Christ. We must also be aware that celebrations of the sacraments are not completely private ceremonies. Sometimes baptisms and weddings are misconceived as pertaining only to the involved family. Each of these is, instead, the action of the whole community. They express our integration into a community of faith, the body of Christ, which is the Church. * Some excerpts are taken from Byzantine.net (c) 1998-2002, and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops(c) 2000.