The devil will try anything to get us to stop going to Mass on Sunday–job demands, household chores, an overtired body, sporting events. This last lure, by the way, was one employed most effectively by the Nazis and Communists of the last century! They purposely scheduled sporting events on Sundays to draw young people away from church. Yet if we succumb to the temptations to forego our Sunday obligation to God, we unwittingly make ourselves vulnerable to attack. We have all heard the tired excuse, “I can pray just as well on the golf course as I can in church.” That, however, makes about as much sense as our thinking that a solitary sheep would somehow not be vulnerable—that it would be just as secure as if it were among the flock. What is true of caribou and sheep is also true of us: There is safety in numbers.
Separation from the flock makes sheep vulnerable to the wolf. We are the sheep of God’s pasture (Psalm 100). Separation from the Church makes us vulnerable to the devil. Let’s stick together, for Christ’s sake! Let’s resolve to attend Mass every week. Why not go even further? Let’s act as Jesus’ sheepdogs and do our best to bring back those who have wandered from the fold. The more the merrier, and the safer we shall all be!