Aren't They Really 'Holy Days Of Celebration?'

We need to change the way we think about holy days.

I’ve been kicking around this idea for months; now is as good a time as any to go public with it. All Saints Day seems a perfect place on the calendar to effect this change.

Will you join me in immediately considering it and other dates on our Church calendar as Holy Days of Celebration instead of Holy Days of Obligation?

I found myself sitting in church many weeks ago, waiting for a holy-day Mass to begin. “We are here to celebrate this day,” I found myself thinking. “Yes; Church teaching tells us we are obligated to attend Mass on this and other days throughout the year. But that just plain sounds negative and unhappy to me.”

Think about it. You’re likely already planning which Christmas Mass you’ll attend, and you always know which Easter Mass you’ll arrive for way early – in order to have a seat. More than any others, I suspect, these two days find us joyful and celebrating – and happy to be at Mass.

Shouldn’t we be like that every time we go to Mass?

Shouldn’t we be especially joyful on days that the Church “requires” us to attend Mass? I put requires inside quotation marks in that last sentence because it occurs to me that our desire to celebrate days like Nov. 1 – the Feast of All Saints – is what SHOULD “require” us to go to Mass.

Nov. 1 and all the other holy days should be considered Holy Days of Celebration, not obligation. To me, at least, that just makes sense.

Look at it this way. On those days that we are “obligated” to go to Mass, we are celebrating Feasts of some of the most important elements of our Catholic faith. They include a day devoted to an angel saying to a young Mary, “Hail, full of grace;” a day devoted to Mary’s Immaculate Conception; a day devoted to the birth of her Son; another day devoted to his resurrection from the dead, in fulfillment of the scriptures; and this imminent holy day, which enables us to celebrate the lives of all the saints.

I hope that, if you’re doing so now, you will stop approaching these days as “obligating” you to do anything. Instead, welcome each one joyously; go to Mass to thank God for the day’s blessing (whatever Feast Day it is), and to prove your gratitude and faith by receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus.

Celebrate holy days like All Saints Day. When you do, you won’t feel obligated at all.