Sunday Mass

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Yes and no. You worship God together as a group, which in a way is social. But if you are paying more attention to each other than to God, you are doing it wrong. You still have a responsibility to participate as an individual.
I wouldn’t call it exactly social. You are gathering together, yes, but you don’t interact during the mass. So the answer, I think, is more no than yes. It is a time to be together, not to work on becoming more together. #1 focus for each, individual mind, is God.
 
henrikhank said:
Is Sunday Mass a social situation?
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I would say yes it is, insofar as the Mass is the only time in which the entirety of the Church’s body on earth communes with each other and with Christ the Head in Holy Communion. So in a sense, the Mass could really be called the most “social” of all occasions.
 
It’s only social in the sense that a group of people come together to worship God. It’s not supposed to be social in a secular sense.
 
From the viewpoint that liturgy is defined as the official public worship of a community and that Mass (the celebration of the Eucharist) is the central act of the Church’s liturgy, then the simple answer is “yes”, Mass can be described as a social event. But alas, as I’m predicting that dozens of posts to follow here will demonstrate, there is no simple answer to this question. For example, those who view Mass as a strictly vertical act of worship and not one that is both vertical and horizontal will adamantly answer “no.” Also, certain negative connotations of the word “social” and especially the related word “socialize” will likely cause others to answer in the negative.
 
felsguy said:
From the viewpoint that liturgy is defined as the official public worship of a community and that Mass (the celebration of the Eucharist) is the central act of the Church’s liturgy, then the simple answer is “yes”, Mass can be described as a social event. But alas, as I’m predicting that dozens of posts to follow here will demonstrate, there is no simple answer to this question. For example, those who view Mass as a strictly vertical act of worship and not one that is both vertical and horizontal will adamantly answer “no.” Also, certain negative connotations of the word “social” and especially the related word “socialize” will likely cause others to answer in the negative.
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I think the answer is “yes” if the term “social” is being used in the proper sense. It is incorrect to view Mass as a strictly “vertical” affair between the individual and God. Mass is very much an action of the entire community, and to say otherwise is to miss the point of Holy Communion. Yes, this communion is with Christ the Head, but it is also communion with the members of the Church. It does seems, however, that some of the previous posters have interpreted “social” in a more colloquial way, thus rendering its meaning different.
 
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