A catechesis on the First Precept of the Church in light of Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist
by Father Andrew Heaslip,
Diocesan Director of Religious Education,
Diocesan Coordinator of Digital Media, Director of the TV Mass for the Homebound
In our last catechesis on keeping holy the Lord’s day and the Resurrection, we saw how the third commandment is deeply tied to creation and redemption, and how the Old Testament obligations of remembrance and rest on the Sabbath are fulfilled in Jesus Christ who brings about the new creation and the redemption of the human race through his cross and in his resurrection on the third day, Sunday.
In this catechesis I would like to draw from our previous reflections and focus on the first precept of the Church in view of Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). The goal of this catechesis is to help us understand why there is a grave obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy days and, even more, why this obligation is something we should freely want to fulfill whenever it is available.
The First Precept of the Church
The first precept of the Church is, “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation” (CCC 2042). This precept requires the faithful to participate, that is, to be physically and consciously present at the Eucharistic liturgy when the Christian community gathers together for Sundays and Holy days of obligation. This precept is distinct from but deeply related to the third commandment, as well as other Jewish feasts of remembrance in the Old Covenant, both of which Jesus brought to fulfillment in the New Covenant.
Sunday Obligation
We saw in our last catechesis that one of the fundamental obligations of the third commandment is remembering God’s work of creation and redemption: “Remember the sabbath day... for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth... and rested the seventh day” (Ex 20:8-11) and “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand…” (Deut 15:5). We’ve already seen how this commandment continues and is fulfilled in the passion and, especially, the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday.
The point I would like to make here is: the precept to participate in the Eucharistic liturgy on Sunday, while distinct from the third commandment, realizes the command of remembrance in the fullest way possible because it is the supreme living remembrance of Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross and in the resurrection. The Mass makes his sacrifice for sins and his risen body actually present—living—and is carried out according to his words, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). Hence, the part of the first precept of the Church that pertains to Mass on Sunday flows directly from the third commandment’s obligation to remember.
Holy Days of Obligation
What about other holy days of obligation? In addition to the weekly observance of the Sabbath, now fulfilled on the Lord’s day, Sunday, the people of Israel also celebrated many other feasts of remembrance. They occurred on fixed days and seasons of the year and included specific liturgical practices. For example, the great Jewish feast of Passover occurred on the 14th of the first month of the Jewish calendar and obliged the Israelites to celebrate it with specific ceremonies such as families coming together to partake of a Passover lamb. God and his chosen leader, Moses, instituted this feast and its specific liturgical practices, again, for the purpose of remembrance: “that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt” (Deut 16:3).
Similarly, the holy days of obligation in the New Covenant such as Christmas, Mary the Mother of God, the Ascension, All Saints Day, and the Immaculate Conception occur on fixed days or seasons and oblige God’s people to come together in the liturgy in order to celebrate God’s mighty works which have come to fulfillment in the mysteries of the Christian faith. Likewise, God’s appointed leaders, the successors of the apostles, instituted these holy days of obligation as a means of commemorating (remembering and celebrating) the great mysteries of faith and salvation from which all the family of God benefits. Hence, holy days of obligation are occasions of grace and remembrance; they have a certain connection with and precedent in the feasts of the Old Covenant, yet are ultimately rooted in the life and mysteries of Jesus and the authority of his Church, both of which are a fulfillment of the Old Covenant.
The first precept of the Church, then, has its obligatory character and can be dispensed because it is based in the pastoral authority of the pope and bishops who are the successors of Peter and the apostles who, in turn, were commanded by Jesus to celebrate the Eucharist, “...in remembrance of me.” This is, among other reasons, why there is a grave obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days, and why it can be dispensed for serious reasons such as our recent global pandemic.
The Institution of the Eucharist
The first precept of the Church, moreover, has its deepest reason in the gift that Jesus gave on the night he was betrayed, when he instituted the Eucharist. It is in this gift and the prayerful words and actions surrounding this gift that we discover why we should long for and freely want to participate in the Eucharist. What is this gift? It is the gift of Jesus himself.
When He instituted the Eucharist before His passion, Jesus established the perpetual memorial of his suffering, death, and resurrection which has redeemed the world. This truth is contained in the very words that Jesus used at the last supper. When he took bread, he said, “This is my body which is given for you” (Lk 22:19) and when he took the wine, he said, “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28).
An important point to realize here is that these actions and words of Jesus anticipated the sacrifice of his body and the pouring out of his blood on the cross. When he said to the apostles, “do this in remembrance of me,” what they were to remember was not simply the last supper but the crucifixion, its meaning, and the resurrection. The words “given for you” and “poured out for many” which the apostles heard with their ears at the last supper took on meaning only after Jesus’ ordeal of Roman crucifixion when he gave his body to be nailed to the cross unto death, and when the solider lanced his side causing his blood to pour out.
The command of remembrance, however, included not merely the recollection of the physical details of the suffering and death of Jesus but also, and especially, the meaning of them. The cross manifests Jesus’ love “to the end” (Jn 13:1); it is accomplished “for the forgiveness of sins,” “for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3); and it is the beginning of a “new covenant,” that is, a new and living relationship with God in his Son, Jesus. This gift of the Eucharist which Jesus instituted at the last supper and which the apostles were to do in remembrance of him took on its full meaning for them only after the crucifixion and resurrection; and it took them and the early disciples time to awaken to this full meaning.
Remembrance
The scriptural term remembrance, in fact, implies this type of awakening, that is, a realization of the reality of God and the work he has done (see for example, Num 10:10). We see this awakening to God’s work in the accounts of Jesus’ appearances to his disciples after the resurrection. For example, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus converses with two of his disciples who do not realize that it is him. It is only after he opens the scriptures to them about the meaning of the Messiah’s suffering and glory and, most of all, when he takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it—the same actions he performed at the last supper—that they finally realize or awaken to the reality that it is him. At that moment he vanished from their sight. Yet, he was helping them to realize that he is, and is going to be, present to them in a new way, that is, in the breaking of the bread which is the most ancient name for the Eucharistic liturgy. Indeed, after realizing it was the Lord, those two disciples told the apostles that, “he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Lk 24:35).
It is with this full meaning of remembrance, which includes not only a recollection but also a realization of the living reality, that the apostles and early Church celebrated the Eucharist (see 1 Cor 11:23-27). So, it is with the Eucharistic liturgy in every age: when the Mass is celebrated it is done in remembrance of Christ whose passion and resurrection are not only recalled but also made present.
When we assemble together for the Mass it is truly a time when the Lord awakens us anew to his presence and his work of salvation. Indeed, nothing brings us closer to Jesus and to one another than the celebration of the Eucharist. It is there where we encounter his love to the end, it is there where we are renewed in the new and everlasting covenant relationship with God, and it is there where we can receive the crucified and now Risen Lord. These are the deepest reasons why there is a precept to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and they are why we should long to realize this precept.
I hope that this two-part catechesis on the Sunday and holy day Mass obligation has been helpful not only for understanding but also for inspiration. It was written in anticipation of and preparation for May 23, the Solemnity of Pentecost, when this obligation will be restored in the Lincoln Diocese. May the Holy Spirit draw us together anew into Christ Jesus at the Eucharistic liturgy.
