Originally published at The Catholic Thing
The Catholic calendar carries this noteworthy designation on various dates: “Holy Day of Obligation.” The Church requires us to attend Mass in order to honor the Third Commandment. Those of us present at Mass should comply with a sense of duty. A properly directed sense of duty is holy and good. But salvation does not come from dutiful compliance alone.
A sense of duty maintains families. Fathers, as good husbands, dutifully keep schedules, go to work to put food on the table, and pay the rent. Mothers are also dutiful, as good wives, in their motherly tasks, making the home a domestic church. A baby rewards maternal solicitude with its first word, mama.
By vocation and circumstance, thoughtful single folks often have an intensely focused sense of duty, dedicating their lives to endeavors that benefit the local community and the whole world. Priests dutifully prepare and execute a parish schedule with Masses, Confessions, and Baptisms. Duty motivates workers to make the trains run on time. Duty builds and defends nations. A sense of duty is a cornerstone to efficiency, productivity, and getting the job done.
We fulfill our religious duty to keep the Sabbath by attending Mass on Sundays and
