I often encourage people to attend daily Mass as part of their quest for holiness. Especially with young people, I frequently hear the response, “but, I don’t have to go to daily Mass.” This is precisely the point; we aren’t obligated to go to daily Mass.
The liturgy contains the greatest sacrifice we will ever know, and each time the liturgy is celebrated, that sacrifice is re-presented before us. It is that sacrifice that makes the liturgy what it is.
I think we recognize our personal sacrifice in a unique way during the week, when we’re not otherwise obligated to go to Mass. Sure, on Sunday’s and Holy Days we make our own sacrifice, but we’re also obligated to do so. The greatest sacrifice, the sacrifice of Calvary, is most impressive in the freedom with which it is given. We see in the agony in the garden (Matt. 26:39-44) that Christ, recognizing the fate before him, doesn’t want to die. Terrified, he begs his Father to spare him the terror of the cross. But he accepts the will of G_d and freely gives his own life. How great is this sacrifice, given freely, out of his own love for us?
When we attend daily Mass, we don’t go because we are obligated, we go because we want to, because the sacrifice and the grace of the sacraments are more important, more desirable, than the things we give up, just as our salvation and obedience to the will of the Father was more desirable to Christ than his own life.
It is precisely the sacrifice, freely given, that makes daily Mass so beautiful. So quit kidding yourself. Make the sacrifice to make the time and get to Mass.
