1 Jul 2010
I blame the community
Community can be very challenging
Living in Poatina, and in Fusion, I realise how easy it is to see the weaknesses in everyone else.
Jean Vanier talks a bit about this in Community and Growth, and in the process describes the challenge of community life very well:
Sometimes I meet people who are aggressive towards their community. They blame it for their own mediocrity, claiming that it isn’t nourishing enough and doesn’t give them what they need.
They are like children who blame their parents for everything that goes wrong. They lack maturity, inner freedom, and above all trust in themselves, Jesus, and their brothers and sisters. They want a banquet with a nicely written menu, so they reject the crumbs they could have all the time. Their ‘ideal’ , their idea of spiritual nourishment they feel they need, prevents them from seeing and eating the food God is giving them in their daily life. They cannot accept the bread that the poor people, their brothers and sisters, are offering them through their look, their friendship or their words.
At the start, community can be a nourishing mother. But with time, we must all discover our own nourishment in its thousand and one activities. We may find the strength from God to discover our own wounds and solitude, our cry of distress. Community can never comfort this distress; it is inherent in the human condition. But community can help us to accept it, and remind us that God responds to our cry and that we are not entirely alone. ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14). ‘Fear not, for I am with you’ (Isa 43:5). To live in community is to learn to walk alone in the desert, at night and in tears, putting our confidence in God the Father.
Indeed – good stuff Matt – it’s worth thinking about!
Wendy
July 1st, 2010 at 9:56 pmpermalink