This past week has been so great. Wanna know why? I'll tell you why. In a word, community. I've had so many opportunities throughout this week to spend some quality time with people. Like learning guitar with James. Or "stargazing" (we only saw one that night) with Bri. Or going to Walmart with a Spanish-speaking resident at the Mullen Home, and finally understanding that she wanted to buy a chicken. Or running with Morgan. Or getting to know Monica, one of the volunteers at the Gabriel House. Or having a dollar coke date at McDonald's with the other Bri. Or trying to find a park with Abby, and never quite making it there. I could go on, but I'll spare you. To top it off, we threw a big party at our house on Saturday for Mother Teresa's feast day, which was earlier in the week, as well as Mary's birthday.
Those of you who are familiar with my apartment last year know that we lived by the motto "Building community one stomach at a time." And since we don't do outreach with food in quite the same manner as our apartment did last year, I've adapted this motto to fit me better this year. (I literally am just deciding on this for my motto as I type this, and since I usually carefully think through these things, it could potentially change, but for know I think it will work.) For my time with CIC, my motto will be "Building community one soul at a time."
The thing about community is I don't just love it cause it's enjoyable. It's much deeper than that. Entering into community with others, whether it's those you live or work with or those you meet just once, allows us to experience Christ in a very real way. What does that even mean? Well, Christ dwells in the heart of every individual that we meet- we are all made in God's image and likeness. Every time we encounter another person, we can encounter Christ. ("Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.") Community gives us the opportunity to know and love Christ better by knowing and loving those around us. Genesis 2 even notes that "it is not good for man to be alone." We were made to enter into communion with one another and to gain a deeper love and understanding of God through our relationships.
Mother Teresa notes that loneliness is the worst kind of poverty. Perhaps that is because isolation from others (not just physical isolation, but mental, emotional, spiritual isolation) is really isolation from God, since He himself is community. He's a Trinity, who relate to one another in perfect communion. (Side note: I'm not sure if I'm supposed to use the verb in the singular or plural in that sentence since I refer to God both in the singular and in the plurality of his Persons... if anyone wants to interject with their thoughts, I'd be really interested in knowing what to do there!) Since God is a relationship and we are created in his image and likeness, it is our joy and our duty to enter into relationships with Him and his children. The community we build here on earth is so great, but it is just a shadow of what heaven will be like- eternal communion with God, and through that communion, eternal communion with each other!
A professor at Benedictine once put it this way: when we enter into community with others, when we start to suffer when they suffer and rejoice when they rejoice, our souls are beginning to overlap. (Figuratively, of course. It's an analogy.) The same is true for our relation to God, and the more we know and love Him, the more our souls begin to be transformed into Him. In heaven, we will be in perfect communion, and our souls will all be completely overlapping and entirely united in God.
So I didn't mean to turn this post into preaching, this is really what's been on my mind a lot lately, so I just thought I'd share it with you! I meant to post some pictures too, but I think I'll save that for a later time since I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet. Until then, I plan to just build community one soul at a time!
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