"Why do we go to Mass every Sunday?" Catholic parents are likely to hear this question at some point from an inquisitive child.
Every Sunday is really a little Easter. We gather to worship God on the first day of the week to remember Christ’s resurrection from the dead and to celebrate God’s action to save the world.
Each Lent, as we prepare for Easter, we recall that within the overall cycle of the year, the Resurrection is the pivot around which the whole Christian year turns. Easter is the central point of our Christian lives.
The Ten Commandments ask us to "observe the Sabbath day — to keep it holy." (Dt. 5:12) In the book of Exodus, this requirement is spelled out more specifically: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD." (Ex. 31:15)
The church, however, does not observe the seventh day (Saturday), but celebrates instead the paschal mystery every eighth day; on the Lord’s day (Sunday). (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 106)
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, we are obliged to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body. (CCL, can. 1247)
Setting aside Sunday as the foremost day helps our Christian families to "enjoy sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social and religious life." (Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 67 § 3)
Although we celebrate Easter only once each year, we actually return to it each week in our Sunday worship. Each week, we gather to commemorate the one-time, historic event of Christ’s death and resurrection. Each week, we are sent back into the world, to live out his Gospel.
