Called to Community

When living overseas the tension experienced between solitude and community always seems to be heightened.  Caught vulnerably in new and unfamiliar cultural situations two great fears can rise within the ego--the fear of being alone and the fear of not belonging.  These insecurities are unavoidable when living overseas.  The challenge is how a person responds to these insecurities and therefore transforms and becomes more mature than before.  One key step in this journey is navigating a healthy life in community--not to be dependent on others but interdependent with others.  In ¡Gracias! (a Latin American journal that I´m currently reading), Henri Nouwen describes how gratitude of the individual greatly affects the community.  In fact, it paves a path that allows our companions and intimates to discover their gifts and abilities.  This in itself, though, can only bring a person so much happiness.  Nouwen says that helping others recognize their gifts does not alone sustain long term joy and real gratitude.  Real joy can only come from meeting the Master Divine in the community we find ourselves living and serving.  Receiving the ¨Lord himself¨ as the Gift.  (Matthew 25:40)

 

I must find ¨the Divine treasure hidden in the hearts of the people in my community¨ (Henri Nouwen, ¡Gracias! 19-20). When I choose to see the Master in his children and in the least of these, then I am truly receiving his love and allowing it to pass through me unto others.  ¨The true skill of ministry is to help fearful and often oppressed men and women become aware of their own gifts, by receiving them in gratitude.¨ (p. 19)  In receiving each child of God as a gift from the Master, in seeing his face in the suffering, I am in-turn receiving the Master Divine.  Precious are the moments when Christ is welcomed and received in community.  As servants of the Divine among us, acknowledgement of hospitality and gratitude are critical in accepting the Divine among our community.  This is a key truth to understand''we are not bringing goodness to God or even to others for God, it is God who brings all the goodness to us. 

 

God also brings it out of us.  When my teammate and I work harmoniously together, as we clean the bathroom at Missionaries of Charity, the harmony exists as a gift of the Spirit--inviting us to keep step with the Divine´s timing.  When my Bolivian family knows how to serve each other well and even to relate to a foreigner in their midst, it is the Divine influence that evokes this hospitality.  The servant must enter into community with acknowledgement of a holy presence; we are not alone.  The servant must always be aware of the rhythm of the Spirit; for our feet and our hands are not ours alone--we belong to Something greater.

 

Amen

-scr