Gatecrashing the Trinity: Don Miller and Why Catholics Go to Mass

Don Miller is a prominent Evangelical Christian writer. And he doesn’t go to church much… at all.

But wait, I hear you saying, don’t all Christians go to church? Isn’t that kind of a non-negotiable? I mean, how could he not!?

Don says he doesn’t go to church because “it’s not how I learn.” He describes himself as a kinesthetic learner. Most Evangelical church services, however, are auditory. You listen to the Bible, to a sermon and you sing songs. You really don’t do much (except maybe raise your hands…) and the most visual you’re going to get is the stock photos of sunsets, ripples or clapsed hands on the PowerPoint.

Look! Clasped hands *and* a sunset!
Look! Clasped hands *and* a sunset!

Don says that it’s just not how he worships God, learns about God, or connects with other Christians.

I actually think Don has a point here. As a former Evangelical, I would have said go to church because this is the best place to do those things. But if they’re not working for you, why go? We’re all different, right?

For Catholics, however, it’s a very different story.

Who is the Church Really About?

If you read Don’s article, you will see it’s all about him. I don’t mean that in a negative way. Evangelical church services are about you. They’re all about you worshiping God, you learning about God, and you connecting with other Christians. God is one part of the equation and you are the other. 

The Catholic Mass is different.

While the key relationship at a Protestant church service is between you and God, in the Mass it’s between God Himself. The Mass is, first and foremost, an act of God to God by God. It is the re-presentation of the atoning sacrifice of the Son to the Father by the Holy Spirit.

We’re there too but it’s only by participating in that prior action of Christ. We unite ourselves to Christ, and by this are granted “communion in the divine life.” (CCC #1325) So the main relationship going on at Mass is between the persons of the Blessed Trinity… and we’re the gatecrashers. We’re basically the Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan of divine life — or the Goldilocks to the Trinitarian Three Bears.

That means, however, that the Mass means something whether or not I’m there. St Padre Pio said that, “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass.”

To really get the difference here, try imagining a Protestant church service without a congregation. It just doesn’t work. It wouldn’t be a church service; it would be a private devotional time. And why go to a church building for that?

Why Go to Mass Then?

But if the Mass doesn’t need me to do its “job”, then why go?

Bear with me here, but I think because the Mass has an objective meaning outside of me; I am actually more dependent on it. If the most important thing is how I worship and grow in God, well I can do that anywhere I am. (God is always going to be there anywhere because He’s omnipresence.)

If the most important thing, however, is how I participate in already existing action, then I need to be where that action is. To go back to our metaphors, I can’t crash the wedding unless I’m at the wedding. I can’t eat all the porridge unless I’m in the three bears house.

Realising that also makes me so much more grateful for my welcome! We might be the gatecrashers but God invites us to become the Bride Herself. Blessed are those called to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb! We might Goldilocks but these three bears of the Holy Trinity are like, EAT ALL THE PORRIDGE!!! AND THEN WE’LL MAKE PANCAKES!!! AND BACON!!! (Hmm, bacon…)

latin mass

Because the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass doesn’t need us, we need it all the more. Christ will be offered to the Father with or without you. But with all His love, He invites you in and offers you everything He has, even Himself, in the Holy Mass.

As St Paul says,

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:19-21)

So go to Mass.

It’s not every day you get to gatecrash the Trinity.

Oh wait… yeah, it is!

Laura McAlister

Laura McAlister

Laura is a baby Catholic, research student, writer, tea-drinker and aspiring countess from Sydney, Australia. Formerly an Evangelical Protestant, she came back to the Catholic Church in 2012. She disturbs the universe at Catholic Cravings.

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2 thoughts on “Gatecrashing the Trinity: Don Miller and Why Catholics Go to Mass”

  1. Very good ! I have another analogy to explain those who don’t crash weddings
    too often. It’s called the ‘grace per gallon’ concept and basically says that some
    people get more from one mass than some who attend regularly. It also explain the C & E crowd, who like dry sponges, swell the churches to celebrate Jesus’ birth and resurrection.

  2. OneTimothyThreeFifteen

    This is the first piece I’ve read for a long time that actually expresses the ‘Catholic thing’. You get it completely. It’s why I reverted, too.

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