Man Goes To Mass To Seek Out Intimate Encounter With Neighbor

Explaining how forcefully and extensively the centrality of an intimate encounter with the person of our neighbor is to the spiritual life, local Catholic Jonathan Duggan invited friends to Mass this morning so that they too could experience the loving embrace of neighbor.

“The Mass is the primary place for an intimate encounter with our neighbor,” Duggan said. “The Church ask those who make up the Body of Christ to gather at least once a week to receive his or her neighbor’s living presence during the holy sacrifice of the Mass.”

Duggan went on to say that faith is above all a “personal encounter with whoever happens to be seated beside you,” and that to experience their closeness, their friendship, and their love, is the only way one can learn to know their neighbor ever more, and to love and follow them ever more closely.

“The hearing of God’s word, then, is an encounter between man and the man sitting beside you at Mass,” Duggan continued. “Our neighbor is the physical embodiment of the Father’s eternal word reaching down from heaven into our earthly existence and speaking with us, teaching us the mysteries of life.”

Duggan concluded his “sermon” by saying, “Furthermore, it is through the Sign of Peace, which is the source and summit of our faith, that we truly become one.”