Love as Community

My husband, Mike, and I just got back from our trip to Colorado. I have two brothers who live in the Steamboat Springs area, and my heart was aching to see them and their loved ones. I used to live in Colorado, and love the mountain air, and, of course, the scenery.

We really wanted to spend time with my family, which was accomplished. When I returned home, I had 750 emails waiting for me. One of them was a dialogue from Richard Rohr, which I want to share with you today.

While away with my family, I was so struck by the depth of love that we share, and that we are so interconnected. This sense of community runs so deeply, even though through just my family. Richard Rohr’s words of reflection really hit home for me. He wrote that, “we are each of us simply one fingerprint or footprint of God. We are essentially connected with one another. The foundation for community has to come out of Reality and What Is. the best way we can do that in community is to repattern our lifestyles on what is. And the pattern of the universe is that we are one. It’s a benevolent universe, it’s radically okay, and God is on our side. We can be at rest.”

The apostle Paul talks of community as the Body of Christ. “For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them” (Romans 12:4-6).

Love through community is vitally important to our survival. Thank the Lord for the love of family, friends, fellow workers-even those helping us pick out prized positions on a trip! All of my family hold such wonderful gifts, and, in community, we have so much to offer each other and those around us. I am awestruck at my families’ similarities and differences. With a total of three brothers, we have such varied gifts, and those are so apparent to each other.

As disciples of Christ, we have “one footprint of God. We are…connected with one another, yet very different also.” As Christ’s community, we are vital, interconnected, and strong. Although the mystery of God is ever-present, we know that it is “a benevolent universe”; one that allows us to do good, think well of each other, and treat each other with respect and love.

Thanks be to God!