Are Most Catholics Hell-bound?

[MissTea]

Hi, everyone,

I am a cradle Catholic, and I love the Catholic faith still. However, I am highly concerned with a very important area of theology, and I find any insight I've gained from research so far quite disconcerting. Okay, so here it goes:

One day, a priest told my congregation, "Missing Mass is a mortal sin." I began thinking how my fellow parishioners--and many other individuals who live in my heavily Catholic area--have missed Mass. Many simply miss occasionally for baseball games or shopping, yet I know they nonetheless retain a deep trust in Christ. Indeed, I am guilty of skipping Mass sometimes, too. Eaten up with fear, I went to Confession.

So, apparently, I am safe, having gone to Confession--but what about the many, MANY people within the Catholic faith who have shrugged off their responsibility to attend Mass? Is it true that if one goes to Mass every week in his life, only to shirk going to Sunday Mass in favor of attending a baseball game, and then dies the following Monday, he will go to hell according to Catholic doctrine? This seems astoundingly legalistic to me, and I just can't believe the Church could truly teach this, much less justify it.

This question tends to make Catholics mad. (Trust me, I've already asked some local priests, who either avoid the question or answer in annoyance or anger). With that in mind, I ask you to please not treat me like a heathen or an internet troll, but remember that I am simply one of your Catholic sisters (albeit, a confused one!) whose Catholic faith is a bit troubled.

Thank you,

MissTea

 

[benedictaoo]

Its not about the acts in of themselves, missing Mass or not missing Mass. Its about what's in our hearts. A flat out refusal to go when you know what Mass is and you know it's grave to miss it and you miss it on purpose knowing full well what you are rejecting. That is when you are in a bad set of circumstances because you are in rebellion. Not because you missed Mass.

 

[Cosmic Charlie]

Personally, I just gave up.

And maybe that's the right thing to do. Just surrender to mercy and let it go.

I no longer thing about the practical implications of the moral theology of the Church.

It's too complicated, too over analyzed and too legalistic.

I just do what I think is best using Christ as a guide and don't really think about my spiritual destination much.

Now

People will tell you this is somehow being morally relative.

Well, ok

But I can't and won't go through life paralyzed by fear to the point of doing nothing for fear of doing something wrong.

It's better this way.

I think anyway

 

[benedictaoo]

I hear ya Charlie.

 

[truefiction1]

I won't comment upon the Roman Catholic teaching regarding missing Mass. I'll leave this to the OBOB forum members. I will say that we should always strive to attend the Divine services as are offered, as a strict form of discipline because of our own individual spiritual needs as well as the needs of our individual parish communities who really need for us to be there. This is especially important in very small parishes.

 

[benedictaoo]

The thing is we can not say if anyone is going to hell or heaven because we just don't know.

 

[Rhamiel]

for something to be a mortal sin
people have to know how serious it is

I would argue that most Catholics do not really understand how serious it is.

on a side note, I think most Catholics (and most people in general) are probably going to hell anyways

we hold on to bitterness, we do not forgive, we do not give of ourselves to those who need us
we take up greed and vice...
maybe I am just in a pessimistic mood

but yeah, for a sin to be mortal, it has to have three things

be of a serious nature
be done in full knowledge that it is a mortal sin
be done in full freedom

as I said, many people do not really understand how serious this is, so I am not sure if it can be said that they have full knowledge

 

[Living in the Light]

Did you ever hear of "a ring of truth?" I am not Catholic, but I fail to see any truth to this. God is Omnipresent -- you will experience God everywhere.

 

[benedictaoo]

What is up with all these guests coming in here and disrespecting our teachings?

Whadda you mean no ring of truth? Missing Mass is a Mortal sin and asking if most Catholics are hell bound because most Catholic miss Mass is a very valid question since missing it is a grave sin. If most Catholics are guilty of this grave sin being mortal to their own soul is another issue all together.

 

[Rhamiel]

Did you ever hear of "a ring of truth?" I am not Catholic, but I fail to see any truth to this. God is Omnipresent -- you will experience God everywhere.

hello

I do use the "ring of truth" thing a lot.

but as for this specific issue, I am not sure it applies.
we live in a very secular culture, where the things of God are given less importance then wealth, status, and pleasure.
So maybe our judgment is slightly off on this?

 

[Dani K]

Well luckily for you, church.. pastors or preachers are not in charge of your soul's demise.

Love your maker

 

[Rhamiel]

Well luckily for you, church.. pastors or preachers are not in charge of your soul's demise.

Love your maker

Hi Dani, welcome to our subforum

I think the idea is not that the Church makes arbitrary rules "and if you miss church, lets kick them to hell hahaha"
no nothing like that

it is recognizing reality
if we do not put God first in our lives
then our spiritual lives are in serious risk

this is one way that we put God first in our life
by going to mass
so this is not like a rule that was made up
but recognizing a deep spiritual truth

 

[truefiction1]

Hi Dani, welcome to our subforum

I think the idea is not that the Church makes arbitrary rules "and if you miss church, lets kick them to hell hahaha"
no nothing like that

it is recognizing reality
if we do not put God first in our lives
then our spiritual lives are in serious risk

this is one way that we put God first in our life
by going to mass
so this is not like a rule that was made up
but recognizing a deep spiritual truth

Methinks this rings of truth loudly.

 

[ZaidaBoBaida]

I've missed Mass two weeks in a row. Once because of travel and this past week because I just didn't feel good. I meant to go to the 5:30 pm Mass and just couldn't motivate myself to even do that.

 

[AMDG]

The thing is we can not say if anyone is going to hell or heaven because we just don't know.

Yeah, well, I hope I'm not headed toward the place of eternal hotness. I don't take the heat too well. (So I'm planning on "keeping my nose clean" and then throwing myself on the mercy of the court.)

Hi! Welcome to our bunch

 

[Fran75]

My personal belief is that we aren't condemned to hell based on technicalities. This life might not be fair but I believe the next one is. I think a lot of us are going to have a layover in purgatory though.

 

[BornOfWaterAndSpirit]

It is a Catholic dogma that whoever is outside of the Catholic Church, or is in mortal sin, is hell-bound. Based on this dogma, take a look around you and consider what the answer is to your question.

 

[Sword of the Lord]

It is a Catholic dogma that whoever is outside of the Catholic Church, or is in mortal sin, is hell-bound. Based on this dogma, take a look around you and consider what the answer is to your question.

I thought it was if you're outside the church knowing full well that it's the one true church established by Christ? Most people outside the church don't agree or know this to be a fact.

Personally I'm outside the church. I've spent the last two or three months seriously looking into the church, along with Orthodoxy, from a Lutheran, former Pentecostal, background. A couple weeks ago I met my breaking point and snapped. I got so sick and tired of the legalistic crap that doesn't resemble the NT church or anything the Lord said, between Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Pentecostalism, Baptist/Calvinism, Methodism, etc. Everyone calling everyone false and or/evil, twisting scriptures to prove who's right and who's wrong. Everyone believing something different with a different set of rules. I got so stressed out to the point of not sleeping. I was wishing God would just come down and tell me to my face who's right, what the right path was. Then I remembered what Jesus said..... Just be a child. Just believe in me. I've taken a break from organized religion and focused on just God alone. My stress is relieved. God used a dream and a Pentecostal preacher to save me a couple years ago. He didn't use Catholicism. He used his message.

There's no way this God is sending me to hell for being outside the church. There's no way God is punishing me for being his child and letting all the legalistic crap go. When I get my strength back and my mind right I'll investigate again, but I won't let it consume me that way it did. He makes it so easy for us but we feel the need to make it difficult. Jesus didn't say to go through so many months of this class or that class to be part of the church, and that's true from the LCMS and RCC, among many others. Man it just destroyed my mind.

This reminds me of Sola Scriptura. If you're blind how can you rely on scripture alone? If you're in a place in this world where there is no RCC you can get to how can you be part of the church?

Just believe. Receive the message and believe. Before people jump down my throat for "oh em gee, what's with all these ppl teaching against our doctrine?" don't bother. I'm not giving up on you all, just taking a break and getting my mind right. The God that I keep in touch with daily, live my life for, who has blessed me, saved me, isn't sending me to hell for not being part of your label.

 

[judechild]

Whether most Catholics are going to hell - for this reason or another - I do not know, nor does anyone else. What I do know is that it is a mortal sin to choose to miss Sunday Mass unless that obligation is suspended for some reason such as sickness or dispensation. I'll try my best to explain why.

Catholics used to - and still do - die for celebrating Mass. At the beginning of the fourth century, for example, a group of Christians were brought before the Emperor Diocletian when they were caught celebrating Mass; they responded to the Emperor's questions by saying "Sine dominico non possumus vitrare": "Without Sunday, we cannot live." The reason they said this can be seen in the theology of the Mass. The Mass is the same sacrifice as the Passion of Christ; that is why every Catholic Church must have a crucifix - it's to show in space the reality that is taking place: that in the Mass, we really experience the past, present, and future running together. The priest says the words of Christ "This is my body; this is my blood," but he doesn't say them so that we remember "hey yah, Jesus said those words; I'd forgotten..." the priest says them because it is as though we are right now in the Upper Room with Jesus as He celebrates the Last Supper. The Last Supper is meaningless without the sacrifice on the Cross, though, and so the crucifix is prominent; through Sacred Time, we are standing at the foot of the Cross at the same time as we are at the Last Supper. Finally, through the mystery of the Eucharist, we rise with Christ and share in a pre-emptive way the eternal Sacrifice that is depicted in Revelation as the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. In fact, it is because of the connection with the future - with rising with Christ - that Christians celebrate on Sunday. The Pope-Emeritus writes in Light of the World:

"We always have to keep present in our minds the fact that he tells us with the greatest certainty 'I will come again.' This statement comes before everything else. This is also why the Mass was originally celebrated facing east, toward the returning Lord, who is symbolized in the rising sun. Every Mass is therefore an act of going out to meet the One who is coming."
​

We "go out" to meet the rising Christ on Sunday - the day that He rose in time, now mysteriously extended in Sacred Time. The Christians brought before Diocletian understood this - hence they were wiling to die for it. It is a sad reality of the modern era that Catholics - far more comfortable today than at any other time in history - can't go to Mass rather than a baseball game. Jesus tells the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25: we want to be the five virgins who went out to meet the Bridegroom, not the virgins who weren't prepared and went away.

Sunday Mass is not a "technicality" or a rule that doesn't have "a ring of truth in it." God is everywhere, but that has never stopped people from saying "God is in the people I meet." Clearly, God is present in a special way in other people - distinct from His presence everywhere else; He was also present in a special way when He was walking around two-thousand years ago. Well, the Eucharist is another way in which He is specially present - in fact, present in the same way as He was when walking around two-thousand years ago. Jesus has given us the gift of Himself and... oh for crying out loud: the all-powerful, all-present, unmovable, unchanging, and uncircumscribed God has come really present under the appearance of bread and wine; what are people doing going to a baseball game? The reason that Catholics are to go on Sunday is because Sunday has been forever changed by the greatest of all miracles: the rising of Christ from the grave. The Jews were right to celebrate the Rest of God; when Jesus came and rose, He fulfilled the thing that the Sabbath was pointing to, and so Sunday has superseded Saturday.

It seems that Descartes' tentacles reach far; people like to try and separate their actions in the body from their actions in the soul, as if the two were completely separate. The result is that some people make sovereigns of their feelings (i.e. whether they "feel" like they are alright with God, or doing the right thing). "Feelings" are not the experience of God; they are fickle and easily influenced by many perfectly natural factors. The Church has always taught a unity of body and soul; that what I do in the temporal present affects my soul, my being, and my spirituality. And in this case, we couldn't ask for a gentler obligation: we are obligated to celebrate at least once a week through participation in the sublime mystery of the Passion of Christ. We desperately need the wisdom of the martyrs under Diocletian, so that we too can say "without Sunday, we cannot live."

 

[SpiritualAntiseptic]

Hi, everyone,

I am a cradle Catholic, and I love the Catholic faith still. However, I am highly concerned with a very important area of theology, and I find any insight I've gained from research so far quite disconcerting. Okay, so here it goes:

One day, a priest told my congregation, "Missing Mass is a mortal sin."

If that is what he said, he's a dangerous idiot.

Missing Mass is not a mortal sin. It's potential grave matter, but it's not a mortal sin. Maybe he was feeling down on himself from looking at too much inappropriate content the night before?