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The U.S. Surgeon General has issued an Advisory.
Going to Church is an essential--vitally necessary--human activity. It is the present day encounters of men with Jesus Christ. Just as men had to personally encounter Jesus Christ on earth to obtain a miracle, so men must become members of His Church, the Catholic Church, to seek salvation, and go to Church.
The Catholic religion requires social interaction among its members, and it is primarily through the ministry of priests (in persona Christi) in the seven sacraments. The in-person social interaction of the Catholic sacramental life is vital for the health of the members of the Church. That health and salvation includes the well-being of Catholics on earth and does not end with death. The Christian life in Christ ensures eternal life. That is what "salvation" (salus) means; it means health. The greatest solution and safeguard to the epidemic of lonliness is Catholic divine worship: social interaction with Jesus Christ Himself, in the life and activity of the Church, especially daily Mass and worthy Holy Communion, being fed daily by Christ with the Body and Blood of Christ. Frequent confession is also essential to that worthy Communion.
This is the theology of "communionum sanctorum." Man needs to receive the sacraments in the Church of Jesus Christ in order to receive and to thereby be in union with God--Jesus Christ--and to thereby live a truly human life in the communion of saints: with the Church militant (on earth), the Church suffering (in purgatory) and the Church triumphant (in heaven). Holy Communion is necessary for life!
That is what the word "communion" means. It means union of persons, principally union of men with God is holy worship and holiness of life. Personal daily relationship is the essence of the true religion of Christ and of our Catholic faith. Essential activity! The most essential/necessary activity!
Do not let any man deceive you into thinking that there is any other more important activity than that of Catholic worship, or that Catholic worship is ever dispensable. No government, no health official, no authority on earth can eliminate the need that man has for Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Every one needs to worship God in the person of Jesus Christ. That is vital. It is the essence of our Catholic faith! We need to be touched by God and we need to touch God, and we do that most normally in the living of the Catholic sacramental life.
Thank you Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy for acknowledging the social aspect of that vital need for Jesus Christ in ordinary Catholic piety and the unity of believers in the practice and living of the Catholic faith.
