Ascension Thursday, Holy Day of Obligation
The following was written by His Lordship Monsignor Sebastian. It covers the importance of attending Holy Days of Obligation, and also the importance of the Feast of the Ascension.
I was a little taken aback today when I received both an email and a text about Holy Days of Obligation: basically the question is Is it a sin to miss Holy Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation?
The answer is unequivocally YES! To put it plainly, every Sunday of the Year is a Holy Day of Obligation, in addition we have six (6) additional days in the United States: All Saints (1 November), the Immaculate Conception (8 December), Christmas (25 December), the Circumcision of the Lord (1 January), the Ascension (Thursday after the Fifth Sunday after Easter) and the Assumption (15 August). To miss any of these days for any other reason than sickness is a mortal sin. If you are required to work on one of those days you must request a dispensation BEFORE that day: no layman (or even Priest) can dispense "themselves". If one will be out of town, such as vacation, it is your responsibility to first seek a place that has a valid CATHOLIC Mass, if you cannot find such a place you must seek a dispensation. Again, it is a MORTAL SIN to Miss Holy Mass for ANY reason besides sickness, without being properly dispensed. This is not my rule, this is the constant teaching of the Catholic Church upheld in Sacred Scripture and Canon Law. Attached to this obligation is not shopping (even online) or doing unnecessary servile work; this is why I had to dispense the faithful when you helped us move things on those several Sundays after Holy Mass.
So, if you miss Holy Mass for any reason save what I have written above (I forgot is was a Holy Day is NOT a valid excuse), you will need to go to Confession before you receive Holy Communion, otherwise you ad the sin of sacrilegious Communion to your soul - which is a very serious sin. PLEASE take this instruction seriously: it is not meant to "call anyone out" but rather, to make sure you all have a proper understanding this this regard. Let me know if you need any further clarification: you are all on your way to becoming holy saints!
Beloved in Christ the Ascended King: this day we, the Church, celebrate the culmination of Paschaltide, the Easter Season – when Our Lord JESUS CHRIST, after spending forty days teaching and confirming (proving) His most glorious Resurrection, ascends into Heaven, from whence He came (cf. S. John 8:14), to take His rightful place at the right hand of the Father. The Lord has been taken from our sight, and to mark that the light of the Paschal Candle was also taken from our sight at the end of the Holy Gospel. We need, like those that witnessed this event, to maintain our joy, because the Lord fulfils another promise to us, and we, if we be conformed in the image of Christ, may also rise and ascend in a like manner (cf. Romans 6:3 – 5).
The scriptures tell us that Our Lord ascended after forty days, and so let us review what is meant by FORTY DAYS:
Forty Days and Forty Years is a time set by HEAVEN to complete a task or goal, e.g.: 40 Years of the Israelites wandering in the desert; 40 Days of Rain to cleanse the earth; 40 days of fasting in the desert by Our Lord.
Too many Catholics fail to understand the importance and significance of these events in the history of our salvation – this is not the fault of the faithful, but rather, that of the clergy whom have failed in their duty to explicate this most holy and glorious historic action. In his sermon on the Ascension of the Lord Saint Pope Leo the Great teaches us that:
“After the blessed and glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (wherein was raised up in three days that true Temple of God which had been destroyed…), there came by God's providential ordering a season of forty days, the annual commemoration of which endeth on this day. The original great forty days, dearly beloved, were spent by the Lord in profitable instruction for our benefit. On this wise, His bodily presence was still given to the earth during all these forty days, that our faith in His resurrection might be armed with all needful proofs. For the death of Christ had troubled the hearts of many of His disciples; their thoughts were sad when they remembered His agony upon the Cross, His giving up of the Ghost, and the burial in the grave of His lifeless body: and so a sort of hesitation had begun to weigh on them. Hence the most blessed Apostles and all the disciples who had been fearful concerning the death on the Cross, and doubtful of the trustworthiness of the report of Christ's Resurrection, were so strengthened by the clear demonstration of the truth, that, when they saw the Lord going up into the heights of heaven, they sorrowed not; nay, they were even filled with great joy. And, in all verity, it was a mighty and unspeakable cause of rejoicing for all the holy multitude of believers, when they perceived that the nature of mankind was thus exalted above all creatures, even the heavenly spirits, so as to pass above the ranks of the Angels, and be raised beyond the heights of the Archangels. For on this wise they perceived that no limit was set upon the uplifting of that nature short of the right hand of the Eternal Father, where it was to be Sharer of His throne, and Partaker of His glory; and nevertheless it was still nothing more than that nature of man, which the Son hath taken upon Him. Therefore, dearly beloved, let us also rejoice with fitting joy. For the Ascension of Christ is exaltation for us.”
Likewise, Saint Pope Gregory the Great, in his sermon on today’s Gospel, that of S. Mark, teaches us in this way:
“I may be allowed to say that the disciples' slowness to believe that the Lord had indeed risen from the dead, was not so much their weakness as our strength. In consequence of their doubts, the fact of the Resurrection was demonstrated by many infallible proofs. These proofs we read and acknowledge. What then assureth our faith, if not their doubt? For my part, I put my trust in S. Thomas, who doubted long, much more than in the Magdalene, who believed at once. Through his doubting, he came actually to handle the holes of the Wounds, and thereby closed up any wound of doubt in our hearts. To confirm to our minds the trustworthiness of the fact that our Lord did indeed rise again from the dead, it is well for us to remark one of the statements of Luke: Eating together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem: and a little afterward: While they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Consider these words, note well these mysteries. After eating together with them, He was taken up. He ate and ascended: that the fact of His eating might show the reality of the Body in which He went up [proving this was His TRUE Body raised from the dead, not a mere ghost or apparition]. But S. Mark telleth us that before the Lord ascended into heaven He upbraided His disciples with their unbelief and hardness of heart. From this I know not what we should gather, but that the Lord then upbraided His disciples, from whom He was about to be parted in the body, to the end that the words which He spake unto them as He left them might be the deeper imprinted on their hearts. When, then, He had rebuked the hardness of their hearts, what command did He give them? Let us hear. Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Beloved, this day as we come together to worship God and offer prayers of thanksgiving for the many graces He gives to us, let us call to mind our need to also fulfil the commandment of the Lord: to preach the Gospel to every creature. As pious laymen you preach by your holy example, as the saying reminds us actions speak louder than words.
