| CONTENTS Preface Prologue |
ANTIOCH WEEKEND LEADERS MANUAL |
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CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY Community in Christ |
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| Introduction
to the Antioch Weekend
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THE INTRODUCTION: SPEAKER: A Student Duration: 45 minutes Purpose: To communicate a concrete picture of the Church as a community of people united in Christ. To show what a wonderful thing Christianity is when it is lived in a community of love joined together by Christ. To show concretely how Christ is the center of Christian community - we are joined to Him, he unites us. To give a background for what is happening the Antioch Weekend Experience. Style: joyfully, enthusiastically With lots of examples Progression: Section I begins with a look at the first Christian community, the one begun by Christ, consisting of His disciples, with Himself at its center. The focus is on their union in Christ. It is because of Him that they came together. It then points out that this community continues today in the Church. Christ is still present and His followers are still unite to him and to one another through him. Section II goes on to say that members of the Church should express the unity that they have by forming communities. The basic idea from which everything else flows is the fact of the union Christians have in Christ. Since they are united in Christ it is only appropriate that they should express this bond through forming communities. Finally, this section considers in a theoretical way what a Christian community is. Section III is the most practical in that it presents how Christian communities are formed: by loving other Christians as Christ loved us. After taking a look at what is concretely involved in such love, the section ends stressing the need for Christians to take active responsibility in forming strong Christian communities. Section IV then presents the overflow of the Christian community, the apostolic dimension. The love that Christians have, the unity in Christ, overflows to all men. The community is the source of apostolic action but it is also the end of apostolic action in that Christians are working to bring all men into the love of Christ.
THE OUTLINE I. CHRIST IN THE CHURCH A. Christ formed a community with his disciples B. Christ established a permanent community of his followers and promised He would always be with them. This community is the Church. 1. Christ is present, we form a community with Him. - Bible, sacraments, hierarchy 2. The Church is the body of Christ, the community of those in union with Him. 3. The Catholic Church is not the only Christian Church, but it contains the fullness of Christianity. II. THE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH SHOULD FORM A COMMUNITY A. We have a special bond - Christ. We are brothers to one another. B. We should live according to this bond, make it real, by forming strong Christian communities, making the Church a living community. 1. A community is a group of people who share their lives and help one another. Life comes from a community. 2. A Christian community is Christians who share their lives and help one another as brothers in Christ. Christian life comes from the Christian community. III. WE FORM CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY BY LOVING OTHER CHRISTIANS AS CHRIST LOVED US. A. Love involves an active concern for other people and a willingness to share with them. B. We should love other Christians as members of the same family. 1. We are concerned for them, especially for their lives as Christians. 2. Our love involves trust, forgiveness and communication - especially communication about living with Christ. 3. Our love for one another is different from that found in other human communities because it centers around Christ. C. We should take an active responsibility for the Church and work to form it into a strong Christian community. 1. Everyone needs some Christian community - a relationship with other Christians in Christ. 2. The Church should be an interlocking network of such communities. 3. We should work to form Christian communities in our situation. IV. THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IS OUTGOING, APOSTOLIC. A. The early Church was an apostolic community 1. Christ formed them into a community; they worked as a community 2. The purpose: to bring the good news of God's love to all B. The Christian community is outgoing, apostolic. 1. Our love is not closed, but is outgoing as Christ's was - we try to bring all men to be part of a Christian community. 2. The community is the source of our apostolic action a. The community life is a great support. b. Our love is the greatest means of bringing others to Christ - by including them in a community of love. c. Our love for one another is a great witness to Christ - others can see Christ's presence in our love for one another.
THE COMMENTARY CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY The talk on Christian community is intended to make the idea of the Church as the community of man united in Christ something very practical and concrete and attractive. For some of those making the weekend, the Church is still an institution or just a group of clerics who kill all the fun in life. The Church is seen in the talk as a special kind of community which is the foundation of Christian life, and therefore a community which they must help to build in order to lead a full Christian life. The word "Church" is not used very much in the talk but the overall effect of the talk will be to deal with many of the misconception of the Church and present a view of it as a commu-nity of men united in Christ. This is why the speaker talks about Christian Community and not "Church," and why the element of the Church (priests, hierarchy, sacraments etc.) are consid-ered not as parts of a system but as the means by which Christ acts among us today. The central focus for the entire talk is the relationship that Christians have with each other with Christ. It is because they are Christian that they are brothers and since they are brothers they should take steps to express the bond that they have. Some of those on the weekend will think that the Church is only meant to become a humanistic community and that it's not particularly important whether Christ is explicit or not. The talk makes clear that Christian community means a group of Chris-tians explicitly related in Christ, where Christ is the explicit bond. Christian community is not just any kind of community, it is one founded by and on Christ and connected in Him. It is a Community in Christ. A second emphasis of the talk is on the small local community. The organizational aspects of community are pointed out but not dwelt on. Rather the aspect of brotherly love be-tween the members is given the most attention. This means that the talk must dwell on local communities that can know each other can live together with Christ as their explicit bond. This could be a family, a group of friends, a hall on campus, an apostolic group, a New man community. But it should be clear from the talk that it is important for everyone to have some Christian communi-ty life. This means that he should live with a group of Chris-tians whom he personally knows. With them he can both share his life as a Christian and work (and has a feeling of team work with) to bring others to Christ. Isolation is deadening to the Christian life. A very important corollary to this focus on small local communities is the need for examples. This will make the picture of the community not just an abstract idea but something concrete and attractive. It should also be pointed out here that this talk does not present specific follow-up programs to the weekend. These are left to the final talk on Sunday and should not be presented in this talk. Hence, examples for this talk should not be drawn from the activities that are specific follow-up for the weekend. For instance, if some kind of group meeting is being used for the follow-up, then the mention of it should be left to the final talk on Sunday. The examples for this talk should be other activities or communities that the speaker or the community is part of or has contact with. This talk is also important because it gives a background to what is happening in the weekend: a Christian community is being formed. One of the effects of the talk will be to make it easier for many of the students to take part in the process since the whole idea of Christian community will be very liberating for them. This, along with the experience of brotherly love in the weekend, can be very important. However, under no circumstances should the speaker indicate that this is what is happening to them. I. CHRIST IN THE CHURCH This section presents the fact on which everything else is based. Christ formed the Christian community, He is still in it, He is the bond that unites all the other members. This should come through clearly and be the background that makes the rest of the talk intelligible. I. A. Christ formed a community with His disciples The first Christian community is the one formed by Christ and followers. He is present in that community. He drew His disci-ples together, he was the bond among them, He acted among them - teaching, curing, forgiving sins, reconciling to God. The apostles returned to Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while." (Mk. 6:30-31) And when the hour came, He sat at table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, " I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Lk. 22:14f) (N. B. When lists of passages like this are given they are in-tended as suggestions. One might want to use all of them, some, or none in his talk, or others.) I. B. Christ established a permanent community The community which Christ began did not die but exists today; Christ is still at the center, still living and acting. He Himself established a permanent community of His followers. A misconception that many have is that Christ lived, died, rose, and ascended leaving the world with a set of principles to fol-low, a set of directions for the perfect life. But He did more than this; He left us Himself, He is still with us and acting among us. Just as the earliest community is one in which He is still central. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the power of death shall not prevail against it. (Mt. 16:18) (Mt. 28:20) The early Church lived as a real community with Christ among them. They continue steadily learning the teaching of the apostles, and joined in their fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer. Everyone felt a deep sense of awe while many miracles and signs took place through the apostles. All the believers shared everything in common; they sold their possessions and goods and divided the proceeds among the fellowship according to individual need. Day after day they met by common consent in the Temple; they broke bread together in their homes, sharing meals with simple joy...(Acts 2:41ff) We are writing to you about something which has always existed yet which we ourselves actually saw and heard: some-thing which we had opportunity to observed closely and even to told in our hands, and yet, as we know now, was something of the very Word of life Himself! For it was life which appeared before us: we saw it, are eye witnesses of it, and are now writing to you about it. It was the very life of all ages, the life that has always existed with the Father, which actually became visible in person to us mortal men. We repeat, we really saw and heard what we are now writing to you about. We want you to be with us in this - in this fellowship with the Father, and Jesus Christ His Son. We must write and tell you about it, because the more the fellowship extends, the greater the joy it brings to us who are already in it. I. B. 1. Christ is present, we form a community with Him. The speaker takes a few of the "things" of the Church and shows how they are actions of Christ present in the community. Many on the weekend may feel that they accept Christ but don't understand what appears to them to be paraphernalia of an institution. These things make sense as actions of Christ within the community today. In the Gospel: He speaks to us, calls us together. In the sacraments: He is present, He acts to forgive, heal, unite, etc. In the hierarchy: He teaches, guides, serves. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a partici-pation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (Cor.10:16) All scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people's live and teaching them to be holy. (2 Tim. 3:16) Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me. (Lk. 10:16) Others: Heb. 13:17; 1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:13; Acts 20:28 I. B. 2. The Church is the body of Christ, community of those in union with Him The Church is not just an institution but it is a community but a community with aspecial bond: Christ. The union with Christ of each member is the basis of unity with each other. Because the bond of unity in the Christian community is Christ, it will look like no other community. A difference is there and its concrete implications will be developed in the rest of the talk. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4:4-6) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy na-tion, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. (1 Pet. 2:9f) For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is one Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:12f) I. B. 3 The Catholic Church is not the only Christians Church All Christians are incorporated in Christ, in community with Him, but it is the Catholic Church which contains the fullness of His action in the world today. The Vatican Council makes this point in the Decree on Eucumenism, Section 3. Nevertheless, all those justified by faith through baptism are incorporated into Christ. They therefore have a right to be honored by the title of Christian, and are properly regarded as brothers in the Lord by the sons of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, our separated brethren, whether considered as individuals or as Communities and Churches, are not blessed with that unity which Jesus Christ wished to bestow on all those whom He has re-generated and vivified into one body and newness of life - that unity which the holy scriptures and the revered tradition of the Church proclaim. For it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the all embracing means of salva-tion, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be ob-tained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who already belong in any way to God's people. During its pilgrimage on earth, this People, though still in its members liable to sin, is growing in Christ and is being gently guided by God, according to His hidden designs, until it happily arrives at the fullness of eternal glory in the heavenly Jerusalem. This point in the talk does not need to be made at any length. It is sufficient to treat it briefly. II. THE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH SHOULD FORM A COMMUNITY We do not make the unity in Christ; it is of divine origin. However, we can destroy the effects of the unity so that its expression in the Church is lost. The effect of this unity should be the life that Christians live together, communities in Christ. II. A. We have a special bond: Christ. We are brothers to one another Christians are united in a special way to each other. The Bible uses many images that carry this message. What they commu-nicate is the unity that there is among Christians. We are brothers to one another, members of the same family of God. It is not just an ephemeral union. Rather it is a real union, real because it is founded on Christ. Christians are not just a group of people with common interests, or common ideals - rather they have a common source of life. "I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. "The real bond that Christians have is Christ Himself. Since Christians are united to Christ they are brothers to one another. The early apostles were to-gether only because of Him they became brothers. So it is with Christians today. Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called "children of God" - and that is not just what we are called, but what we are. Our heredity on the Godward side is no mere figure of speech... Oh, dear children of men... have you realized it? Here and now we are God's children. We don't know what we shall be come in the future. We only know that, if reality were to break through, we should reflect His likeness, for we should reflect His likeness, for we should see Him as He really is! (1 Jn. 2:30ff; Phillips) II. B. We should live according to this bond, make it real... We did not make this unity and we cannot break it because its origin is in Christ. But we can destroy the effects of it so that the expression of it in the Church is lost. If it is not expressed it becomes unreal for our lives. In one sense there is only one church, but in another sense, there are many churches, i.e., many communities of people gath-ered together by the love of Christ, founded as a community on their life in Him. Being a Christian community involves praying together, taking together about Christ, working together for Christ; in short, a shared Christian life. There are many levels that we find this on: a parish, a family, an apostolic group, a group of people who live in the same dormitory, a group of Catho-lics on a secular campus, etc. The essential thing is that there is in Christ be made explicit and be expressed in a shared Chris-tian life. II. B. 1. A Community is a group of people who share their lives In order to see what a Christian community is, the speakers begin by considering what any community is. Life comes from a community. Few people would have the strength to live if they were put out of all human community, put out into a desert or wilderness. But life is not just made possible by community; it is made eassier and richer. With other people there are many more ways of doing things, many different kinds of activity. Art, spotrs, education, books, most of what we consider human life would be lacking without other people. The single human being would live on the level of an animal. Human life comes from community. A community is simply a group of people who share their lives and who help one another. II. B. 2. Christian community is Christians who share their lives Just as any community involves shared life so the Christian community involves shared Christian life. Further, just as all life comes from community that we receive new life in Christ. It is as members of Christ and therefore of one another that we are Christians. We also need others for growth in the Christian life. Through others we receive the sacraments, with others we offer the Mass and live our lives as Christians. Very often the reason that our Christian lives are impover-ished is that we don't live together with other people as Chris-tians. We live religiously as individuals, and we treat other Catholics, even members of our families, as if both of us were strangers to Christ. We ignore other Christians, never talk to them about Christ, and rarely pray together. The fuller our community lives as Christians the fuller our Christian lives will be. The speaker should give here the example of his first con-tact with a Christian community indicating what was special about the community that first impressed him, and how he came to know clearly that Christ was the bond among this Christian community whether it was a large or small group. One of the greatest strengths of this talk will be its examples. The best sense of real Christian community is received through actual contact with one. The next best thing is to hear in a concrete way Christian communities. III. WE FORM CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY BY LOVING OTHER CHRISTIANS AS CHRIST LOVES US. An Introductory Comment Section I presented the fact on which everything else is based: our unity in Christ. Section II said we should express this unity through living communities with Christ as the explicit bond. This section considers how this can be done, how communi-ties are built up. The key to presenting this section is witness, the speaker's relating of concrete examples that show how the points look in life. Wihtout the examples this section cannot communicate a true picture of Christian community. This section should not present just love among a group of people. Rather, the primary point that should be seen through this section is that a Christian community is formed first by deep personal relationship with God and then by sharing this together with other Christians. Christian life is building up the body of Christ, the fanily of God. It is building up those around us who are Catholics by making them better, happier, holier. It is drawing others into that life; and it is making ourselves better. The foundation of all this is mutual love, living together as brothers. It is loving one another as Christ loved us. Our love must be like Christ's love for us. Receive one another as Christ received you. (Rom. 15:7) Him that is weak in faith receive... for God has received him (Rom. 14:1-3) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples,if you have love for one another. (Jn. 13:34-35) Christians are brothers to each other in a special way. In fact their brotherhood is so real that a standard name for Chris-tian in the New Testament is "the brethren." The universal, standard name for Christians is brother. Though in Acts and Rom. 9:3 the Jewish community is still addressed as brethren (12 times), overwhelmingly this is the term for Christians (174 times). Jesus said not only "one is your teacher, and all you are brethren" (Mt. 23:8), but also "if you salute your brethren only , what do you do more that others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?" (Mt. 5:47) That is, He was bringing all men into a family which transcended the limits of the blood relationship, because He was claiming them as His brethren (Mt. 25:40). Thus the status of man is entirely changed by membership in the Church ("no longer a slave...but a brother beloved,"Philemon 16), be-cause He is "the brother for whose sake Christ died" (1 Cor. 8:11f), and "Christ is the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). The devine purpose in the work of Christ is just this fundamental unity with His brethren: "For both He that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause His is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. 2:11-18). This means that Christians should have a special love for other Christians. Many of the students do not have a sense of the special love that Christians should have among themselves as brothers, as special group of people. As F. X. Durrwell puts it: Some have though that the brother I should love most is not neighbor in the faith, but the distant brothers with whom I am linked only by our common human origin. St. Paul says no: "Work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith" (Gal. 6:10). The kingdom is where charity in the world, and it is first of all with in its frontiers that love must reign, among those who feast together in the Upper Room. It is to them that Christ says, "Love one another, as I haved loved you" (Jn. 15:12). Peter, James, John and Bartholomew must love each other as Christ loves them, with that charity that springs up in the heart of Kingdom, in the heart of the Lord. They must love each other, not simply with a kind of "espirit de corps," not from loyalty to the group, but because they are united in the love of God, members of the Kingdom of charity. III. A. Love involves an active concern for another people.... Love is one of the most badly understood words that is used today. It is more thatn sex. It is more than a warm tingly feeling. It is more than unstructured openness and willingness to relate. It involves an active concern for other people and a willingness to share with them. When Christ spoke of love He was not being romantic and He was saying more than that people should accept each other. Rather, He showed that love involves concern for others, actively helping them. We have to go out to others, loving them, demand-ing no reward, setting no prior conditions. To love as Christ loved is only possible if the source of love is within us. It is the love of Christ which overflows from us. In our union with Christ we receive love first from Him and it is that love is the source in us of love for others. Let us have no imitation Christian love. Let us have a genuine break with evil and a real devotion to good. Let us have real warm affection for one another as between brothers, and a willingness to let the other man have the credit. (Rom. 12:9f) Others: 1 Cor. 13, Phil. 2:1-4) III. B. 1. We are concerned for them... especially for their lives as Christians The love we have for other Christians extends to all of their lives but especially to their lives as Christians. We are concerned about their health, their education, and so on but especially about their relationship with Christ. Too often we act as if the only thing that a person needed help in were his physical needs, and leave him struglling by himself with the deeper needs, the spiritual needs. Here the speaker should use an example of one Christian being concerned for another's Christian growth. The example brings out the point that a Christian's concern for another goes beyond his physical and psychological needs to the root of his life, his relationship with Christ. But Jesus called them to Him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exrcise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Mt. 20:25ff) But God has so adjusted the body; giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the care for one another. (1 Cor. 12:25) III. B. 2. Our love involves trust, forgiveness, communication. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of what is con-tained in love. Rather, only certain attributes of love are mentioned. To handle all would be impossible; these are espe-cially important now. To love is to trust and to be trustworthy. We can trust one another as members of the same body. We are all working toward the same goal - the good of the whole Christ. We can be straightforward with each other, not evasive and devious. We should also be careful to be personally trustworthy, being re-spectful, always honoring the other. We should be reliable, always willing to listen, to help, never willing to let down a brother in need. Receiving love is receiving faith; it is a sign of another's faith in us. Think what it would be like if God were unfaithful, if we could not really rely on Him, if He dis-pised us and spread our faults around. We must be faithful as He is. And the othe side of trust is that we be trusting. Trust is a sign of love. We should be open, frank, not suspicious, or secretive. It is better to trust and dissapointed than not to trust at all. Our love must involve forgiveness. If we want to be forgiv-en we have to be forgiving. People usually think of this terms of major offences, insults, hatred, etc. But it also means the less obvious forgiving of people whose personalities we find annoying in some way, large or small, forgiving of the inadequa-cies of others. It means that we should never be critical of them because of their faults. It is easy to unconciously reach the point of rejecting them as a friend and this we must not do. Finally, love, above all, is union, communion. And so it involves communication. We share our lives and especially our lives as Christians. It is unfortunate that it is often though to be taboo to talk about Christ in our modern society but this must not be true in the Christian community. Rather it is true that we will naturally talk about the things that mean the most to us. This is just true of the way human beings are. Some-things does not become a penetrating reality in our lives unless we talk about it with others. Christ will only be a symbol to us or an illusion or a fantasy if we do not communicate with others about Him. Communication requires many things. We must be willing to listen to the opinions of others and be open in order to understand the feelings and the attitudes of others. We must also be willing to admit when we are wrong. We come to the other as a broher genuinely interested in his world. We are mindful to give ourselves to others generously and gently but we are also ready to receive from them. The speaker should give examples where these traits are contained in love. Communications is especially important. The example of a formal of informal conversation about Christ would be good. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has somethings against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Mt. 5:23-24) But if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trepasses. (Mt. 6:15) Then Peter came up and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." (Mt. 18:21-22) III. B. 3. Our love for one another is different...centers around Christ Our love for one another is different from that found in other human communities because it centers around Christ. The Christ-centeredness of relations is a very important point for the whole talk. It has been brought out above, here it is to be related especially to the brotherly love of the community. The unity of Christians is the most basic and fundamental unity possible: it is unity in Christ. The best way that this will be comminicated is through several examples. The examples should be of concrete events involving groups of Christians whose relationship was explicitly centered around Christ because they prayed together or talked about Christ naturally and apontaneously or worked together for Christ in an explicit way. The love between them was deeper because it was centered in Christ. III. C. We should take active responsibilty for the Church It is necessary for the students to see that communities are built up usually only through the work of those in the community. Sometimes communities spring up naturally but this happens only rarely. Most of the time there is need for some who take con-scious and active responsibility for bringing people together to get to know one another, to share their Christian lives through communication and working together. III. C. 1. Everyone needs some Christian community.... No Christian should be isolated from some Christian communi-ty. He must share his Christian life with others. He needs the help and he should be able to give help. This means that his community life with other Christians cannot be something simply impersonal. Rather, he needs to live with people with whom he can share his experience in living as a Christian and with whom he can work as part of a team to bring Christ to other and to transform the world to the image of Christ. Isolation is deadening to the Christian life. Very often there are priests, sacraments, and a group of baptized Christians who have some contact with each other, but there is no real community life, no personal contact, no sharing of Christian life, no talking about Christ together, no one working together to bring Christ to others. A good type of example for the speaker to use here would be to tell how important the community is to his Christianity and to give an example of the difficulty he found in trying to live the Christian life away from the community. III. C. 2. The Church... an interlocking network of such communi-ties At all levels of life there should be Christian communities so that the whole world is transformed into the image of Christ. What is part of Christian communities on many levels (small groups of friends, parish, schools, etc.) and communities of Christians in various places should be linked. The speaker should point to the interlocking Christian communities already existing: in the various dorms, among various groups on campus, then in town, the relationship of communities here to campuses elsewhere etc. III.C.3 We should work to form Christian communities in our situation We should work to form communities in our parish, campus, dorm. There are many ways to do this but what is needed is simply to get Christians to pray together, to talk together about Christ, and to work together for him. At least one example should be given at the effort of a group of Christians who began working together to build a Christian community in a dorm or in a campus and the success they had. The example should stress the fact that they took an active responsibility and work consciously to build a Christian communi-ty. This would be an appropriate place to give an example of an already existing community, mentioning the concrete things the community does (like community Mass, discussions, gatherings, projects, prayer meetings, bible studies, parties, etc.) The purpose of the example is not to prescribe a method of building a community but to describe a community mentioning in a little detail the practical things it does. (E.g. one might describe the community Mass - focus of the community, sermons directed to the community, special prayers directed to the group, coffee or donuts or a meal after the Mass as a continuation of the communi-ty gathering...) IV. THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IS OUTGOING, APOSTOLIC Here the speaker portrays the overflow of the Christian community life. It is the source and end of the apostolate. It is from the community that we receive the strength, the knowl-edge, the encouragement to bring Christ's love to others. It is to the community that we bring people and it is the community which is build up by our work for Christ. This section should be fairly short and enthusiastic. IV.A. The early Church was an apostolic community 1. Christ formed them into a community and sent them into the world. The reassembled to discuss problems, share insights. They were sustained by the prayers of the community. Christ sent them out in two's and we know that Paul used to travel with a small group of people, Timothy, Barnabas, and others. 2. The purpose for which the Church was formed was to bring the good news of God's love to everyone. IV.B.1. Our love is not closed but is outgoing as Christ's was... We try to bring all men into the Christian community. One main objection to Christian community is the idea that it is anin-group. This objection should be met head on. The Christian community is not a ghetto. Rather it is outgoing, wishing to share love with all men, to bring all men to union with Chrit. It is also true that Christian community is not a holding opera-tion, it is not a society for antique collectors. Rather it is outgoing. The gates of hell will not stand before it because it is taking the offensive. Love is an overflowing, spreading thing. If it isn't, there is something wrong. There is something wrong with the love of the husband and wife who don't want children and thee is some-thing wrong with the love of Christians when they don't want to share their life. To bring people to Christ is an act of love, a desire to make them brothers in Christ. May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men... (1 Thess. 3:12) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the ages. (Mt. 28:19f) IV. B. 2. The community is the source of our apostolic action First, the support and love that we receive from our broth-ers in Christ is our strength to continue in approaching others for Christ. The community is the source in the sense that it supports each Christian through encouragement, prayer, discus-sion, sharing, and so on. An example of apostolic action that gerw out of a community effort and was supported by community prayer, such as the AWE itself, or some project might be given. Secondly, our love for one another is a great means for bringing others to Christ. Through the community they can be included in a community of love. This is what men are searching for in the impersonality and anonymity of the modern world - love. And what greater thing can we bring men to than the love of Christ, the love that exists between Christians, brothers who are members of Christ's body. This is the most successful apostolate, to bring people into contact with a Christian commu-nity, to make them part of that love. An example should be given here from the speaker's own life or from the life of someone he knows who came to know Christ because he was drawn into the Christian community through the openness and love of the communi-ty. Thirdly, our love for one another is the greatest witness to Christ; it is our coldness that is the biggest reason for the hiddenness of Christ to the modern world. How else can you ever introduce a person to Christ unless they first meet Christians? And how he can know and love a person called Jesus Christ if he does not first know and love Christians? Our love is the great-est witness to Christ, for together we present an image of Christ. In seeing our love the world will see God and have a real experience of what he is like, for God is love. If we love one another, then we God dwelling in us, and the love of God has reached its full growth in our lives...God is love and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him. (1 Jn. 4:12,16) You live in an age that is twisted out of its true pattern, and among such people you shine out, beacons to the world, up-holding the message of life. (Phil. 2:15) |
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