Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Nineteen: "Community"
"Intentional Communities"
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Jack Jezreel is the founder of JustFaith Ministries, an organization that offers resources to sustain people of faith “in their compassionate commitment to build a more just and peaceful world.” [1] Jezreel describes the need for and qualities of a healthy Christian community (which we might apply to other kinds of religious and non-religious communities):Big-heartedness always draws close to the other, always draws the other close. Francis of Assisi, Benedict, Dorothy Day, Jean Vanier—like Jesus himself—draw people naturally into relationship. And the hunger of the human heart that God put in us is not just for casual and recreational relationships. We long for relationships of meaning. We long to be connected, for healing, for vocation, and for mission. . . .
The challenge before [Christians], again, is to claim our tradition. From the description in Acts of the early Christian community that “shared all things in common,” [Acts 4:32] to the early monastic families, to the development of the hundreds of [religious] communities around the world, to the Catholic Worker communities of the 20th and 21st century, intentional community is what we’re all about. Or at least it ought to be.
The spiritual logic of a community of faith is that they can live a smaller but living version of what they seek for the larger world. . . . When I say community . . . I mean a community that makes very intentional commitments, including . . . engagement with those on the margins, justice education or formation, simplicity, prayer, and peacemaking. . . .
Our tradition suggests that it is very difficult to live a life of integrity apart from the support, encouragement, witness, challenge and celebration of a community. Community is, if you will, the medium in which so many other important things of the Gospel can happen. Community is an engine for peace, it is fuel for justice. We are made for each other. As a species we have always known we could not survive, could not flourish without each other. Whatever is to prosper, grow, or multiply will only happen with the nourishment of people who are for each other in a significant way. . . .
I am interested to see many more forms of intentional community than what we see today. . . . I would like to see the equivalent of Jesuit Volunteer Corps communities connected to every parish, where young people might commit to live for a term of two or three years, committed to the work of justice and peacemaking. [2] I would like to see the parish encourage members to purchase homes in the vicinity of one another and in neighborhoods where there is greatest need, as an expression of the parish’s work. . . . I would like to see every parish have a version of a L’Arche community. [3] I am interested in the construction of simple homes, affordable and available for both poor and rich, to create neighborhoods where all can live and interact and be helpful to each other.
Gateway to Presence: If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.
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[1] See https://justfaith.org/.[2] See http://www.jesuitvolunteers.org/.
[3] In L’Arche communities, people with and without intellectual disabilities live, work, pray, and celebrate together in a simple lifestyle that emphasizes relationships and that fosters personal growth. See https://www.larche.org/.
Jack Jezreel, “Culturing Peace in a Culture of Violence,” Phase 4, Session 19 of the JustFaith 2017-18 Program.
Image credit: Welcome (detail), Canticle Farm, Oakland California. To learn more about Canticle Farm, visit https://canticlefarmoakland.org/.
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News from the CAC
Contemplation IN Action
The spring issue of CAC’s free donor newsletter, the Mendicant, explores the intersection of action and contemplation. Richard Rohr writes, “Rightly sought, contemplation and action will always regulate, balance, and convert. . . . It is an endless, rhythmic dance.”
Guest writers reflect on the new Poor People’s Campaign—continuing the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.—as an example of contemplation in action. The campaign challenges the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation. Beginning May 13, people across the country are participating in nonviolent, direct action, culminating on June 23 with a mass rally in Washington, DC. Learn about the movement in the Mendicant online and visit poorpeoplescampaign.org or find them on Facebook.
"Image and Likeness"
2018 Daily Meditations Theme
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
Richard Rohr explores places in which God’s presence has often been ignored or assumed absent. God’s “image” is our inherent identity in and union with God, an eternal essence that cannot be destroyed. “Likeness” is our personal embodiment of that inner divine image that we have the freedom to develop—or not—throughout our lives. Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things.
Over the course of this year’s Daily Meditations, discover opportunities to incarnate love in your unique context by unveiling the Image and Likeness of God in all that you see and do.
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Inspiration for this week's banner image: When we took down the fences between our yards, . . . we were also taking down the fences in our hearts. That’s when we really began to know and love our neighbors and make peace with one another. (Anne Symens-Bucher, Canticle Farm)
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