Feb

Feb. 10, 2008

V: COMMUNITY

Last week in our continuing discussion of the values expressed in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, we turned our attention once again to “intimate participation.” We ended by noting that we are one Body; we share one faith, one Baptism, so that we may be of service to one another and the world. That last line leads well into another value articulated in the Constitution, namely, “community.”

Though this word is a popular one, it is an uncertain one. We speak of the “African-American community,” the “elderly community,” the “Jesuit community,” the “suburban community.” In these cases community may be used to describe geographic, ethnic, religious, social groups, or even statistical groups. More often, though, when we speak of community we believe that “community” “is a place where no one feels like a stranger.” [i]

Like most parishes in the United States, there is a core of people here at St Aloysius who know one another very well and feel very much at home here. They are not strangers at all. They have been here for some time. They know each other’s names. They are close to the leadership. They share one another’s hopes and dreams. They support one another through prayer and study and outreach. They are “with and for” one another in good times and in bad. They are necessary to the life of this parish.

There is also another group here that reflects another reality. In days gone by when the local parish was the only game in town, intimate community was easier to have and maintain. But in our own time when we as a nation are so mobile; where we try to protect our privacy; where people are changed from job to job, city to city—there is another kind of community. The fact is that on any given Sunday we are gathered with many people whom we do not know and whose faces are unfamiliar.

Unlike those described in the Acts of the Apostles who held everything in common, who prayed daily together, who were devoted to the Apostles and their teaching, we are, what Parker Palmer calls, a “company of strangers.” [ii] We are a people engaged in a common task. We are a people who week after week “cum panis” (from which we get the word company) break bread with one another. Instead of the image of the Last Supper, our image may be that of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. This is the image of community that is described fully in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen gentium) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes); and which is the foundation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

According to these understandings of community we are to see ourselves as [iii] :

(1) a Christ-centered community—a people committed to the person of Jesus Christ who is the center of our lives, the source of our salvation and worship;

(2) a community of “ourselves”—we do not have to be rigidly uniform; there is unity in diversity;

(3) an active community—we participate in the Liturgy where we are changed so as to participate in changing the world through the mission of Christ Jesus;

(4) a community of diverse roles—there is not “us” and “them.”

Christ did not simply institute a clergy who then created a Church. Nor did he simply call together a community that then created its own ministries. Christ established from the beginning a “structured community,” a group within which various ministries function; we each have a role to play in the Liturgy and in the mission of Christ;[iv]

(5) a learning community—by submitting to, entering into the Liturgy, the Liturgy (the activity of God) teaches and trains us for mission; it means being open to conversion and transformation;

(6) a missionary community—“It is not so much the Church has a mission; it is rather the mission has a Church”[v]; we exist [vi]:

to serve on behalf of those who do not know God;

to pray on behalf of those who do not know how to pray;

to intercede for those who cannot plead for themselves;

to hear the word of those whose ears are attuned elsewhere;

to cry for mercy for those who do not know they need it;

to offer sacrifice on behalf of those who do not know that death and suffering have been redeemed;

to celebrate communion for the lost and the lonely;

to serve for those who do not know how to serve;

to thank God on behalf of those who do not know the name that is blessed above all other names.

This is what it may mean to be community. This may provide hope to a world full of strangers. Are we up to the challenge? Humbly we say “Yes,” confident that God, who has begun this great work in us, will bring it to completion. Amen? Amen!

J–Glenn Murray, SJ

10 February 2008