HOW I AM CATHOLIC: AS A COMMUNITY MEMBER

– June 28, 2021

Crowd of people walking

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

Let’s define “Community” –– as people with common INTERESTS, traits, history, location and LIKENESS. We could also add many other distinct qualifiers –– so many so that we risk narrowing community down to a single individual. Market-driven demographics and politics can and frequently do just that. So do poverty, oppression and lack of opportunity. Then add race, gender, religion, nationality and things get UNNECESSARILY more dividing. Not surprisingly, I’ve never found any mention of nationality or other limiting definitions in God’s Seven Days of Creation.

So, over time, I stopped focusing on micro-definitions and began really hearing Jesus’ unifying gospel values. As a Roman Catholic member of God’s Family, I’m responsible to respect, care for, forgive and nurture ALL life. That includes everyone created in God’s image, all of nature and our home – Planet Earth.

So, I live my faith daily by:

  • keeping in mind that the neighborhood is connected to city, the city is connected state, the state is connected to the country, the country is connected to all the countries, all the oceans and all the landmasses. Jesus, the Father, the Spirit and we are ONE,
  • realizing that the cries of the hungry, the oppressed and the impoverished, from all over the globe, are really coming from MY neighborhood,
  • feeling relief that I don’t have any enemies –– only others to love.
  • freeing myself from the need to stereotype, judge, vilify others and carry the heavy burden of resentment on my back all day, every day.

And, I enjoy growing as a community-aware Roman Catholic by:

  • listening to and hearing better the voices of all my brothers and sisters in the family of God,
  • appreciating other people, their cultures, languages, music and traditions,
  • discovering that life is more enjoyable with more and more different people in my global neighborhood,
  • having more people and more places that need my compassion and the Word of God.

Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 1 Corinthians 8:6