Getting to Mass on a weekday is hard for me. The difficulty is no handling my three kids by myself for half an hour. It’s getting everyone up, dressed, fed, and in the pew by 8:30am. Lately our parish offers weekday liturgies at 5:00pm, another challenge for parents of little ones.

The Mass is central to our Catholic faith. These past three months have highlighted just how big of a role that weekly liturgy plays in the rhythm of our weeks. Without the Mass and the Eucharist, we’ve been marooned in a spiritual desert.

With tremendous gratitude to the ministries that stepped up to the plate, our separation was more bearable. Like many businesses, Parishes used their creativity to help us all cope. Parish rosaries have been prayed over teleconference, new homily podcasts have been published, Eucharistic Adoration has been live-streamed on YouTube, and the Mass, that sacred celebration, recorded and uploaded for viewing on any schedule.

This pandemic has reshaped our lives in ways that we’re still learning. It’s a disruptive event, and I was glad that it shook the Catholic Church awake. All of these new ways to experience and express our faith, in community while apart, enriched my family’s life. We were more connected than we had ever been to the daily life of the Church.

I quickly keyed in on the Word on Fire Daily Mass. A ministry started by Bishop Robert Barron, Word on Fire is a digital education and evangelization platform that teaches topics of faith. They’re uniquely suited to record and publish the daily Mass because they’re a digital first organization.

My family attended Mass with Word on Fire for two main reasons. First, we knew that Bishop Barron is a legitimate Catholic priest, so the Masses we attended were valid. Second, since they’re so experienced with video production and distribution, the production values were very high. The camera angle, lighting, and audio were all carefully considered so we could focus on prayer and not poor lighting or distant audio.

Imagine my disappointment when Word on Fire announced that May 31st would be the last day of uploading their Daily Mass. Consider for a moment the sheer numbers of views on their uploads. The Sunday Mass on that day had 144,000 views. I did a random sampling of weekday Masses in May and they averaged 65,000 views.

The average Catholic parish in America would be lucky to have 50 people attend Mass on a weekday, and here Word on Fire was touching tens of thousands of people every single day.

In their announcement, Word on Fire cited that public Masses were resuming in California and that they never intended for their Daily Masses to be published on an ongoing basis. They also expressed their desire for people to return to their parishes. Their points are taken.

Even so, no matter how justified, what a terrible mistake.

In the first place, while most parishes in America have reopened, it has often been done so under restriction, usually at somewhere around 25% capacity. In some parishes, you have to apply for a ticket to attend. Are the pastors supposed to increase their weekend Mass schedule fourfold so that all can attend? What are the other 75% supposed to do?

What about people over 65 or otherwise in at-risk groups. Where are they to go?

What about stay-at-home parents that treasured the opportunity to bring their family to Mass every day. What choice have they left?

What about residents in nursing homes? They used subsist on a once-a-week liturgy. While many states open up, nursing homes generally remain locked down. What about them? 
How about rural Catholic communities? Perhaps they share one priest with several other missions. An opportunity lost.

At this very moment, tens of thousands Catholics are serving in our military. Many of them are abroad, deployed and haven’t seen a priest in months. How can they continue to draw strength from the Eucharist?

What about Catholics who have a job schedule that prevents them from making it to Mass at their parish on a weekday? It’s a special treat to be able to attend Mass, albeit at a distance, at a time that suited their schedule and obligations.

What about non-Catholics who were interested in learning more about Catholicism? Maybe YouTube randomly suggested the video and they clicked. They got to experience the Mass from a place that set them at ease. What of them?

The New Evangelization demands that we use new methods and the technology that we have to spread the Gospel. This pandemic was the perfect excuse for us to try new things and experiment. When you try something novel and half a million people show up every week, you don’t just turn it off because it took some extra effort.