What did you do to get to Mass yesterday?

While driving to Mass this morning, I heard the news on the Son Rise Morning Show about a group of Catholics who went to Mass yesterday morning. It seems rather insignificant to get up in the morning and head to church on a Sunday, yet the story prompted the question: What would you do?

What would you do if 120 people at your parish were held hostage at Mass last Sunday?

What would you do if you knew that going to Mass could result in your death?

What would you do if you spent last Sunday watching the beginning of the death of 51 parishioners and 2 priests the Sunday before?

Last Sunday, Catholics in Baghdad experienced the horror of watching fellow parishioners held hostage, with dozens killed. On All Souls' Day they marched in the funeral procession. And yesterday, many returned. They put their faith, their trust and their love of God before everything else.

The New York Times offered a glimpse of the courage and witness of the Catholics in Baghdad: “'This gives us more strength,'said Sama Wadie, 32, a teacher, his hand wrapped in a bandage. 'We’re not afraid of death because Jesus died for us. Of course we cry, but they’re tears of happiness, because we die for God.'”

At Sunday Mass this week, more than 150 people filed into Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, walking past blood stains and bullet holes. Many who came were still bandaged from their injuries the week before.

In the United States yesterday morning, how many of us begrudgingly went to church? How many complained and sighed and rolled our eyes because of the required Sunday Mass?

We didn't have to walk by bullet holes, or avoid blood stains on the floor. We didn't have to pass through blockades in order to find the local parish. We didn't have to fear being shot because we were openly proclaiming our Catholic faith.

What will we allow the Baghdad Catholics' witness say to us? How will our own view of the gift of Mass be transformed because of the martyrdom of fellow Catholics half a world away? Will we begin to see that the gift of the Eucharist is even something to die for?