Question:
Answer:
While we should be attending Mass to worship God and not socializing, we are indeed social creatures. That is why the high point of our worship is with the larger community at Mass and not simply at home alone. We are called to love God, but we are also called to love each other.
The Bible is full of positive references to friendship:
No one has greater love than this,j to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. (Jn. 15:13-15)
Two are better than one: They get a good wage for their toil. If the one falls, the other will help the fallen one. But woe to the solitary person! If that one should fall, there is no other to help. (Eccl. 4:9)
Do not give up your own friend and your father’s friend; do not resort to the house of your kindred when trouble strikes. Better a neighbor near than kin far away. (Prov. 27:10)
A friend is a friend at all times, and a brother is born for the time of adversity. (Prov. 17:17)
Yes, feel free to make friends at church. Just don’t forget the real reason to be there.