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Hi, Sandy —
If you have health problems that make it difficult to get to Mass, you are excused from Mass — never fear.
Sometimes people look at Mass as merely an obligation to fulfill, as if we were taking out the trash or going to boring job.
Going to Mass should be a joy, something you want to do —
- the joy of being a partaker of the divine nature
- of receiving the medicine of immortality
- of being mystically transported to Heaven with myriads of angels in festal gathering.
Nothing is more holy in Heaven or on earth than the Eucharist. It is God, who gives Himself to us and becomes a part of us through Holy Communion. We should be as joyful as a bride going to meet her groom in the marital chambers. We should love the liturgy so much that we long for it and find ourselves disappointed when we are unable to go.
When we think in these terms, and not in terms of finding excuses to get out of Mass, we don't have to worry about our own judgment about when we can go to Mass, we just follow it.
I don't know where you stand and I can't presume to judge. I might offer that if you are disappointed to miss Mass, you're probably in a good place in terms of judging when not to go, but if you are happy to have an excuse not to go (and not merely because it relieves your symptoms), then you might want to cultivate a greater joy for the liturgy.
Eric
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