Jesus did not give us any doctrines or dogmas. He did give us two commands, in Matthew 22:36-40 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
When I hear the word Love, I think of relationships. Relationships are about shared goals and dreams. Relationships are about support and uplifting the other especially in times of trouble. Relationships are about reaching consensus. Relationships are about togetherness. Relationships are about commonality. Relationships are about unity.
Relationships take a variety of forms. The most common relationships are love relationships. Friendships among individuals; friendships among groups; friendships among couples – all these are examples of relationships. Relationships can take the form of activists, people who share concern about the environment, animals, people with disabilities, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, peace, and so many more. Even civic groups such as recreation leagues, boy and girl scouts are examples of relationships.
All of these relationships involve working together for a common purpose. All of these interactions involve to some degree a level of love.
However, for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus, the ideal of love should be at a higher level. The common cause for us is the bring the deep love that Jesus exhibited in his lifetime to all of our interactions in life. This deep love that Jesus exhibited itself when Jesus stood on the side of the marginalized. This deep love exhibited itself when he challenged the religious norms and leaders of his day.
We take these examples of deep love and apply them to current day areas of our lives.
How do we do all this? By remaining united to the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus. And we do this in community and not in isolation.
Indigenous people have always felt a unity or oneness with creation. This was highlighted in the tremendous respect indigenous people hold all creation and created beings. They saw all life as sacred and lived life in gratefulness. For the most part, indigenous people lived in community. They shared life together in order to make society work.
It is what Joan Chittister refers to as, “communal care.” From our second reading today, “Community gathers us for a purpose. It gathers to enable us to do together what we cannot possibly do alone.
Community is not conformity. On the contrary, community — the different gifts that we bring and the lifestyle that grows us all together — makes us stronger than we could ever be without the others.
Community is not control. Community encourages each of us to grow to the acme of our best selves.
Community is not allowing myself to be carried. It is about my carrying all the others, as well.”
Jesus, although he went off to pray alone, gathered a group of people around himself. He created a community. Jesus engaged in relationships. He did this in order to build a following of people who would understand his ideas and help to spread them to other individuals.
So, we combine both aspects of Jesus – his communal approach to life when he gathered people around himself for support to one another with a shared dream of tomorrow. We also reflect on his solitary approach to life when he would go to a place to be alone and listen.
Community is about working together and sharing common goals and ideas to build a better future.
And the best way to accomplish this and to remain united to Jesus in love is to take the advice of Jim Rigby and listen to Paul Tillich, “The first duty of love is to listen.”
This is true whether we are alone or with others.
mikecorsoreligiousviews 