God forbid we attend Mass as a community of friends verses a church full of strangers.
Many Catholics attend Mass with the attitude that it’s between themselves and God.
They want nothing to do with the people around them and everyone should just focus on themselves and God.
Jim
But that’s not at all a fair description of why many of us don’t like it.
It’s hard to say why without seeming as if we are exactly as you characterize it–unsocial fogies, but here it is:
Through our union with God during this particularly special moment–right after the Consecration–we are united with the entire Body of Christ, here and in Heaven. We could not possibly be closer to the saints, angels, and brothers in the congregation, than God makes us through the Eucharist at this moment.
Whether we are holding hands with each other or physically holding onto the wings of the angels adds nothing to this unity. The unity comes from our closeness with God, it’s not a prerequisite for it.
Not that holding hands is a bad thing, but added to that fact above is the fact that the practice came to the church as an evangelical Protestant practice and was sort of an imposition to people who weren’t choosing to do it. But it felt (and feels) rude to them to turn down somebody’s hand. That’s why it spread through churches like wildfire.
There is a reason the church hasn’t encouraged it as part of the posture. Certainly, people might choose to hold hands while even receiving Communion, if it’s nothing but positive…
But there’s more to it, isn’t there? And finally, this is clearly an emotion-driven thing on some level, not, for the most part, an effort rooted in the celebration of the Mystery.
