by Fr. Alec Sasse,
Vocations Director
Around 9:05 p.m. every Sunday night, the procession begins. No, not a Eucharistic procession down the aisle of the nave, but a procession of spiritually hungry college students walking down Greek Row after a weekend where many different forces – some holy and some sinister – fought for their attention.
The late Mass at the Newman Center – currently at 9:10 p.m., previously at 10 p.m. – is a long-standing staple of our ministry and evangelization of a campus that tends to stay up later than they should on Saturday nights.
To someone who hasn’t viewed this scene before, it can be a little jarring but also very edifying: college students, some in sweatpants and others in khakis, flooding into a packed church to make space for God in their lives, while many of their weekend confreres back at the dorms race to finish assignments that are due at midnight. The students at Newman settle into the pews, begin to look around, and start taking inventory of all the people they recognize from class, Bible Study, or Friday night. As soon as the Entrance Antiphon is sung, the most important hour of their week begins: the hour where Jesus fights to convince them that His Love is better than the world’s counterfeit affection.
While many in the congregation make 9:10 p.m. Mass part of their regular life of prayer and schedule – sometimes accompanied by making a confession or holy hour beforehand – others are there for the first time, often invited by a roommate or friend minutes before they walk out of the door: “Where are you going?” “I’m heading to Mass… want to come with?” is a Sunday late-night conversation that has won many a soul in the city of Lincoln.
I don’t say that flippantly. In the past five years, I have seen countless people meet Jesus because a friend invited them to an obnoxiously and conveniently scheduled late Sunday Mass at the Newman Center. I’d like to share two of those stories.
The first was a young woman living near campus, who was engaged to a soldier deployed overseas. After some international events triggered turmoil in the area in which he was deployed, she lost contact with him for a few days. In that time, she fell into deep anxiety and worry about what was happening to him, but she didn’t know what to do. She had grown up in a “militantly atheistic home” and had only recently begun to develop a relationship with the Lord through the encouragement of her fiancé.
This young woman shared her situation with a friend from the UNL Band, and the friend – a devout Catholic – responded by inviting her to come to 9:10 p.m. Mass at Newman to give the situation to God. The woman came, experienced the presence of God, heard Jesus speaking to her in the homily, and felt consoled by being surrounded by a packed church of believers her own age. The result? She joined the Catholic Church the next Easter, hasn’t missed a Mass since, and now her (previously atheistic) parents are attending Sunday Mass. An invitation changed multiple souls.
The second is another young woman who currently lives on campus. She grew up without any religion whatsoever, except for having been blessed by a Buddhist monk as a baby. Two of her closest friends in her sorority, themselves Catholics who attend the 9:10 p.m. Mass, invited her to join them one Sunday last semester. Out of curiosity and probably boredom, she agreed.
In attending that Mass, the young woman felt deep peace, was drawn into the mystery of the liturgy, and her desire to learn about “this Jesus guy” grew in her heart. She has been attending Sunday Mass ever since, asking questions and learning from her friends, and intends to be baptized and join the Catholic Church this Easter!
When I asked her, “What have you learned most from attending Mass?” her reply struck me: “I’ve learned that I never have to be alone again.”
“I never have to be alone again.” What a profound and consoling conclusion for a 20-year-old to make about her life! Especially in an age marked by loneliness, an invitation from a friend led to her meeting Jesus and discovering true, life-long peace.
We should never undervalue the effect a simple invitation to Mass can be for a person with an immortal soul. We should also never underestimate the importance of meeting people where they’re at. Having a Mass at 9:10 p.m. on a Sunday sounds a little bit crazy, but it’s also where these students are at in their lives at this point. When we have the courage to meet people where they are and invite them to something better, it just might facilitate an encounter with Jesus Christ. And that makes the late nights very worth it.
