Mass & Sacraments - (Back to topics)

Here we are now. Entertain us!" - Kirk Cobain - Smells like Teen Spirit

If you ask why Mass is so boring you are missing the point of Mass. If Jesus intended for Mass to entertain us he would have been crucified at half time during the Super Bowl.
MTV cares if you get bored (that is why the camera angles on MTV literally change every 3 seconds). God wants you to be happy - but I think a little "boredom" is fine.

When someone goes on a date they are looking to build a relationship with that person, not to be entertained by him/her. What if you sat down at a nice restaurant and your date leaned over the table, looked you in the eye and said, "Entertain me! Make me laugh or something! You're starting to bore me!"?

You'd think he/she was a nut - yet that is so often the attitude we bring to our "date" with the Maker of the Universe at Mass.
Mass isn't about being entertained. It is about our relationship with God. It is about listening to the Word of God, and encountering Jesus fully and personally in the Eucharist as we offer our lives to the Father in thanksgiving "through Him, with Him, and in Him."

Don't go to Mass looking for entertainment. Entertainment is nothing next to what we can truly find at Mass.
Go to Mass looking to find God - and yourself in the process.

Jesus is THE Answer!

Chris Stefanick

(Originally posted on the Diocese of La Crosse youth ministry page)

Mass & Sacraments - (Back to topics)

Step one to diving deeper into the Mass is having some clue about what is going on at Mass. You can have front row tickets to the Super bowl - if you don't know what a "down" is, chances are you'll be more into your foot long than the football game.

Check out the stuff about Mass and the Eucharist in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (insert link to Catechism online). It'll blow you away. Reading some of my Q&A's about Mass might help too.

Step two to fully taping into the power of the Mass is pursuing a relationship with Jesus. If we aren't centering our lives in a relationship with God then Mass is probably going to seem less like an encounter with the living God and more like a boring set of motions for us. A date with my wife on Saturday night won't be too meaningful if I've ignored her every other day of that week.

(Continuing the date analogy…) It's also key to show up at that "date" with the right frame of mind. If I'm sitting at dinner with my wife and thinking of what I have to do at work the date won't go too well.
God deserves your undivided attention at Mass! Nothing on our list of to do's is as important as the Mass.
Mass isn't something we squeeze between homework and a football game. Mass is the "source and summit" (check out #1324 in the Catechism) of our lives as Christians. At every Mass we put our lives on the altar. At every Mass we offer up everything we do and everything we are to the Father "through Him, with Him and in Him" so that our lives can be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into something beautiful - into a sacred offering to God. At every Mass we get the food, the sustenance from God that we need to live as His children in our everyday lives. Christians live from Mass to Mass to Mass...

So show up a little early to Mass to clear your mind, quiet your heart, and prepare to participate with your full attention and energy in the most important hour of your week.
Praying over the Readings before you get to Mass (Click here [Insert: http://www.usccb.org/nab/] for a link to a website with each Sunday's readings.) always helps me give it my full attention more effectively too.

The same amazing grace is given at every Mass, but how open you are to that grace makes all the difference.

Jesus is THE Answer!

Chris Stefanick

(Originally posted on the Diocese of La Crosse youth ministry page)

Mass & Sacraments - (Back to topics)

This is how Jesus set it up for us. Check it out:
"Jesus said (to his Apostles - the first priests), 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'" - John 20:20-23

Why He set it up that way isn't as important as the fact that he did set it up that way. If you offend someone you need to reconcile with them on their terms - not your own. When we commit a big sin (mortal sin), the kind that breaks our relationship with God - confession is God's terms for reconciliation.

Now to the less important/theoretical question: "Why did He set it up that way?"
I'll offer five possible reasons - all of which are probably true and then some…

1. Why not just pray and go "straight to God." Confession is a sacrament. Sacraments are our deepest encounters with God this side of eternity. When go to confession, we are going straight to God just in deeper way. God knew we'd need that deep encounter with Him to heal us when we are hurting our lives with sin.
2. This sacrament takes the stain of sin away and gives grace to sin no more. (That is why it is also good to confess our smaller (venial) sins that we are struggling with.) Jesus knew how hard it is to leave sin behind and knew we'd need that sacramental help.
3. Our sins hurt whole body of Christ, the whole Church. Reconciliation with the whole Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God. In the early Church you had to confess before the Bishop and the whole Church out loud. Now it is just done before the rep of the Church - your priest (thank God!).
4. Mortal sin tears up your membership card to body of Christ. In confession you get it back. Perfect contrition (repenting not out of fear of hell but out of love for God) also sets us right with him after mortal sin - but we can't judge ourselves ("Am I really in Mortal Sin? Was I really Sorry?"). In confession have surety of forgiveness when Jesus' appointed rep, speaking with His authority says, "I absolve you…"- He knew we'd need that surety and nothing less when it comes to eternity! That surety we can get from Confession is a great gift to us!
5. It is psychologically healing. One psychologist said he'd have 50% less cases if Catholics used Confession. Guilt drives us nuts. When something is left alone in the dark (like an old forgotten potato) it molds, festers, and rots. The same is true of our sins. It is one of the 12 Steps of AA to tell someone all of the sins of your life. Even if it weren't a sacrament (which it is!) it is a healing thing to do.

Jesus is THE Answer!

Chris Stefanick

(Originally posted on the Diocese of La Crosse youth ministry page)