The trouble was, I think that explanation would be mostly OK if you were a Catholic already, but the broadcast was overheard by a good friend(and non-Catholic) who commented out loud, "... and THAT is why I will never be a Catholic."
Seems pretty unreasonable, to condemn someone to hell just for sleeping in on a cold Sunday morning, doesn't it? Especially if you are a 'model Catholic' in every other way in living out the gospel. One misdeed cancels everything out? How capricious of God is that?
The problem with asking the question 'Why' is that the answer is usually much much longer than anyone has patience for. Especially for something that seems pretty unreasonable right from the get-go. While I could probably drone on for a very long time about this topic, I thought that an analogy might work better.
Imagine that today is your Wedding Anniversary, and you have made plans to go out to dinner with your wife. But instead of celebrating your anniversary, you choose to hang out with your friends. So on the day of the celebration of the most important event in your life together, you choose to ignore your most important relationship and do something else. You are probably pretty darn cognizant you will be sleeping on the couch that night. Or with the fishes if there is any justice in the world.
Now if you are sick, or your job forces you to be out of town -- you likely get a pass on that Anniversary dinner until another time -- just like with Mass.
That is sort-of what happens if you deliberately choose not to go to church. Just like it doesn't much matter if you won't be in the right frame of mind at that anniversary dinner -- the choice of NOT going to Mass says to God -- "you aren't that important to me." But it isn't God that condemns us to Hell. It is our free choice. When we do things like this we freely decide something is better than God. If you died just then, God would respect your choice to have something other than Him. Which begs the question, what is Hell? I'll save that for another day.
But, as with your marriage, you do have a chance to fix this screw up. If you are genuinely repentant, and try to not repeat such an act of selfishness again, you can make up with God through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Personally, I do not want a faith that only affirms me when I'm right. I want a faith that tells me when I'm in the wrong too.
