A reflection from John 20, 19-31
God gave us the gift of being and living in community
for our own good and achievement. According to the book of Genesis, “it is not
good for the human being to be alone (Genesis 2, 18).” We are individuality,
but also we relate to one another. When we grow too much in individuality, it
is born the individualism that is the great risk to the community life, because
the individualistic person lives as if the community did not exist, damaging the
relationship between the members. From individualism, many other evils arise.
The African people really believe that the community experience should be
central to the life of the human being and that without community the life
loses its meaning. This situation is true in concern to our relatives but also in
relating to the ecclesial community - extension of our family community. It is
in this sense that we want to reflect about the community experience of faith
as a testimony of the resurrection of Jesus.
Soon afterward the arrest, passion and death of Jesus, the community of
the disciples seemed to have forgotten everything that it experimented with the
Master, such as, welcome, solidarity, gratuity, seek for the Kingdom of God in
the first place, passion for God and human being, prophetic engagement in
favour of life, simple lifestyle and detachment, forgiveness without limits and
to tune their will with the will of God. Before all this, the disciples resolve
to “close the doors”, simply by fear. But Jesus does not forsake them and remains
with them, especially in those moments when fear seems to take the joy of
living.
In our reality also many situations make us to feel fear, such as,
violence, terrorism and various other threats against life. Fear prevents us to
live our faith truly and we should really be true witnesses. In this point we
realise how important it is to live in community. With the support of each
other and the action of God manifested alive among us, we can certainly
overcome all our fears and accept with joy and enthusiasm the important task of
promoting peace and reconciliation among the people. But if we don't have a
quality presence in the community we will have difficulties in being witnesses,
because the person can only witness what he/she experienced.
The first communities believed that living faith in supportive and
committed way they were making the difference. And in fact, they were
identified by the authentic testimony of faith in community: “See how they love
one another”, so it was said. Of course, the experience of faith is a personal
decision, but involves an ecclesial dimension, “because the faith of the Church
precedes, generates and nourishes our faith”. We know, therefore, that we are
not alone and that our journey of faith is result of a long and matured process.
It reminds us of our parents, catechists, priests, brothers and sisters
religious and so many other people who have passed through our lives and they continue
helping us to live our faith with authenticity. May this be our constant
commitment, according to the appeal of St. John Calabria: “May our faith be
practice and coherent; May there is no contrast between the faith that we
profess and the behaviour that we have”.
Fr. Ndega
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