Community Life … Who Is Responsible?

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to chat with Sister Eileen Reckelhoff, a member of the Benedictine community of Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand. During the course of our conversation Sister Eileen mentioned how her family life at home very much mirrored life in the monastic community. She said it was her community life at home that made the transition into the Benedictine community life seem very natural and comfortable to her when she entered the monastery at the age of eighteen.

Since that conversation with Sister Eileen, I have not been able to let that “community life at home” statement go. I had not really looked at it from that perspective prior to my conversation with Sister Eileen.  It seems logical that living as community should start with how we live our lives at home, considering the wants, needs and hopes of all family members in addition to our own. The natural flow would be for this to permeate into our larger communities—our neighborhoods, our parishes, our work, and the entire world.

While community life involves a number of individuals working together for the good of all, ironically, for me at least, the key word for living life as community is “individual.”  It starts with you/me. The thought of being individuals concerned for others and not only ourselves starts deep in our hearts. Many times we know what action we need to take. With good intentions, we believe in our hearts that we will follow through.  I know I do. But when it comes to living as community, many days I fail miserably, even in my own family. Good intentions just do not get the job done.

So what can we do to better live as community? I would like to suggest that first we look to the perfect example of community life in the Most Holy Trinity.  Yes, there is only one God, a God who lives in community.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit work in relationship, in complete unity and love. Since we are created in the image of God, we are created to be in relationship with others. Then, through prayer and awareness of our call, we, as individuals born by nature to care for others, need to act upon our “good intentions” starting with life at home and eventually reaching further and further into the world.

Thank you Sister Eileen for opening my eyes, for making me more aware of this basic Christian teaching. I truly hope and pray that I will get better each day at answering my call to live as community.  I offer this simple prayer as a reminder and guide for us all.  Lord, open my eyes to family life, community life, life in the Most Holy Trinity, that I may see them all as mirrors of one another and follow through on my good intentions to live as a contributing member of community. Amen.

Brenda Hopf is a member of Divine Mercy Parish in Dubois County and also contributes to the “Sharing the Load” column in The Message.