The Catholic Mass
This ethnography attempts to get at the reasons Catholics attend mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Columbia, SC. This was the Church (and elementary school) I attended, and being such it would be irresponsible to not give you a bit more personal history. As said before, I attended Catholic schooling from kindergarten to twelfth grade (age five through eighteen). I am currently what is considered “non-practicing” meaning primarily that I no longer attend mass, or any other dogmatic ritual (confession) that would go along with being a practicing Catholic.
Mass is a central ritual to the Catholic religion. We should start by breaking it down into it’s primary parts in order of practice from start to finish: opening, two readings (from the new testament from the Christian bible), the gospel read by the priest (from one of the four gospels of the Christian bible), a homily or speech about the readings given by the priest, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist (which will be explained in greater detail later). Mass at St. Joseph’s typically lasts between forty-five minutes to one hour. From a functionalist point of view, the mass serves many purposes, from the essentially religious to the secular. Let’s start with the secular.
St. Joseph’s is (by Catholic standards) a pretty large church. There are about forty pews (long benches) that can seat an average of ten people per pew. At a typical high attendance mass (five-thirty pm on a Sunday) would have approximately 240 people in attendance. The congregation is by majority Caucasian, with a good dispersion of ages (elderly to very young). Dress is typically a business casual type.
The people sit together, in close proximity to each other, and while (save for one instance) communication between them during the mass is almost non-existent there is a very close knit community feel to throughout the mass. The unity throughout the congregation is reinforced throughout the ritual by responses to prayers and sung hymns all done in unison. After the ritual, many people linger in and around the church to converse. The mass can offer the people an introduction to conversation afterwards (“Nice ceremony.” Or “Good homily.”) as almost a type of ice-breaker.
The rich community aspects of the ritual should not be said to be specifically secular though. Several informants said that an idea of enriching their spiritual life, staying close to God, and reaffirming their faith were their primary reason for attending the ceremony. A ceremony that in essence “recharges” the peoples’ spiritual beliefs at least once a week comes into view very quickly by talking with informants. It should not be missed that according to Catholic dogma, you must attend at least one mass per week (on either Saturday [four pm and after] or Sunday). Failure to do so barring circumstances preventing them from attending, or permission from a priest, is known by Catholics as a “mortal sin”. A mortal sin is the most serious type of sin to the Catholics (lesser being called venial), and if not confessed to a priest and paid for by penance (assigned by the priest) can result in the damnation of one’s soul. Informants told me that they didn’t really believe it to be a mortal sin by missing mass, but most agreed that it is a very serious sin. I feel now would be an appropriate point to digress a bit into anecdotal evidence about the varying opinion on this subject as well as helping us further our examination of the ritual.
I attended another Catholic ritual recently known as confession, during which you go to a priest and divulge your sins. The priest will listen, assign a penance (normally consisting of a certain amount of prayers), and forgive your sins in the eyes of God. I attended this ritual primarily to humor family, and being as such, took the time to discuss with the priest my disenchantment with the ritual of mass and why I didn’t attend anymore. We had a most benign chat, and at one point he told me, “Sometimes even I feel like I am just going through the motions up there [on the alter]. To me it sounds like you have your convictions and I cannot say what you are doing is wrong. However sometimes we all need a community that believes things like we do to strengthen and enhance our own beliefs.”
Two things struck me particularly in the story above. 1) Catholic mass is by in large a very ritualistic ceremony, and adheres to strict guidelines that are repeated for every mass. The same parts listed earlier are done for every mass with little variation, and 2) The priest specifically mentioned the community aspect of mass as one of it’s primary functions. He specifically mentioned that mass can serve to reinforce the beliefs within a community (reminiscent of my informants’ reasons). For attendees it is an absolute fusion of secular and religion significance.
By structural argument, the ritual also has appeal to Catholics. The most powerful person during the ritual is the priest, who is essentially the master of ceremonies, but other than the fact that only male’s who have been ordained can be a priest, they are viewed essentially as a first among equals. The congregation is very unified and equal in a structuralism sense. For a non-Catholic this would not be the case however, as the most significant part of the ritual, the receiving of the Eucharist, is only allowed to Catholic members.
The beliefs surrounding the Eucharist by Catholics is most likely the root of this exclusion. Symbolically speaking, there are really only two key symbols throughout the ritual. It is also interesting that the sign vehicles for the signs are “meaningless” until the Liturgy of the Eucharist takes place. Our two vehicles are the host (or a small wafer of bread) and the wine. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, both are brought to the alter over which the priest presides. Ritual prayer and responses from the congregation ensue after the vehicles are brought to the alter. This one part of the mass lasts as much if not longer than the entire first half of the mass combined. The priest petitions God to accept their offering (the bread and wine) several times, and the people pray with the priest aloud for his acceptance. They confess their faith together in a creed known as the Nicene Creed (which consists of several parts professing belief in one god, the trinity mystery [three entities, in one god], along with several other key professions). The priest uses several ritual motions such as raising the bread and wine in turn towards the ceiling while praying for God to bless them as sacraments, and again holding them up together.
During this point, Catholics believe that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood (respectively) of Jesus Christ. At this point, our sign vehicles are assigned a sign, and we have our key symbols. This belief is known as “transubstantiation”. Given the sacred values associated with Jesus Christ and given that the bread and wine are not even extensions of him, but actually a piece of him, can aid in explaining the exclusivity surrounding receiving the Eucharist.
Should one want to find the exact point at which the “recharging” takes place, this is when most informants would tell you it occurs. After everyone has received the bread (wine is optional), the ritual concludes. The alter is cleaned and cleared with utmost reverence towards the bread and wine (any extra wine is consumed, and the blessed bread is stored in a vessel on the alter known as a Tabernacle), the priest gives a final blessing at which the people respond in unison with “Amen” (meaning “I believe.” This part of the mass is known as “The Great Amen”), followed by the recession and dispersion of the people. It is at this point that the spiritual function is over and the people mingle together, fulfilling the secular communal aspect of the ritual. To further a communal aspect, some young people attend a “youth group” afterwards, during which young teens get together to socialize as well as talk about the Catholic faith (another fusing of secular and spiritual functionalism). An agnostic (doesn’t confirm or deny existence of a god) informant told me that she, as a former Catholic, will still occasionally attend mass due to the community aspects and beauty of the ceremony.
During my interviews and attendance of the ritual, I don’t think I ever got one homogenous idea behind why Catholics attend mass. There is an immense blending of ideas and theory behind the entire ritual from an anthropological point of view. Out of a majority in attendance however, I think that the ritual serves an essential function for these people in that it offers a blending of both social and religious community that meets often to fulfill the need the congregation has to both reaffirm their beliefs and do it among peers.
