Cooked in the Common Pot

Community Life

God has gifted us in a very particular way a family- our community. Our community is a system which undergoes stresses and pains, but also, it is of long-time process of fulfilling dreams. It is a collective action, with a common purpose and common identity (as Comboni Missionaries). What has been required in us is the flowering of our personality as individuals. There is always the experience of tension in living together, and it is a day to day challenge to live in our commitment as a community, which is rather expressed in true brotherhood.

Community has always have magnetic attraction, drawing each one who shares together towards a common action, a community in depth uniting the lives of people. Our lives are called to be witnesses to that brotherly community in the Spirit. (RL 10.3) We need to look each other as somebody with spiritual force. But we have to take note that relations exist only if there are people to be related. The potency (effectiveness) of a community is in RESPECT AND LOVE, for without these, we become biased and disintegrated. "We have to make that conviction that every brother is loved, respected, mutually trusted and accepted, dialogued with and rejoiced with as gifts; and that ought to be treated with courtesy and respect on the privacy of others and personal initiatives.

Community life is impaired by individualism, unwarranted privileges, the evasion of personal obligations and other selfish attitudes. (RL 38.6) Individualism could divide and our own peculiarities mark them off from the other fellows. In this case, we always fall in the category, aside that we separate ourselves from the other; we are very much controlled by our biases and idiosyncrasies. We always think we are far better than the other.

Our community is a social unit in which SPACE is also an integral part, especially in individuals. Give space for each one and show due respect. Praise them for the things they have done. Since each one is important, the 'practice of loving and hospitality' is always a challenge. "When love is given and received, a trust and peace enters the heart which the face and the whole body radiates." It is relationship- a friendship and sharing of our being that would lead us to the peak of our communion.

Space could refer to RESPECT and so we need to give space for the person, not to suffocate him. Most often, we are not very careful with our mouths, we say words which are not only hurting, but breaking the relationship. The tongue is a very important organ in every individual. It can proudly claim that it does great things. "We use it to bless the Lord and Father, but we also use it to curse men who are made in God's image; the blessing and the curse came out of the same mouth." "The tongue is boastful, deceitful, smooth and seductive, lying very often. It is a scourged, whetted like a sword; it is like a serpent's tongue, like a sharp sword, like a bow and arrow. The man of tongue is a slanderer. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. It is a rudder, a fire..."

There is a very striking reflection on this: How far is our community contain its cultural traits? Are we integrated enough, or cooperative or sharing enough, in order to be called a real community? It is a call for sensitivity and responsibly assists each other through prayer and fraternal dialogue and genuine friendship (RL 42.4)

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