THE CHURCH AS A NETWORK OF SMALL COMMUNITIES

THE CHURCH AS A NETWORK OF SMALL COMMUNITIES

The small Christian communities were the closest step for the

Christians to the shared daily life of the New Testament Church.

In this modern world, one would not be wrong to say that Christian community has come to mean almost anything and therefore almost nothing. In fact, some people think of it as a social gathering after or before mass. Others believe that Christian community has something to do with suicidal cults. Still others consider Christian community to be groups of parishioners meeting periodically in prayer groups, Bible studies, Renew groups, faith-sharing groups, etc. However, Christian community, by biblical standards, is to accept God's grace to become one with the Lord and our brothers and sisters in Christ as the Father and Jesus are one (Jn 17:21).
It is participating in Trinity unity. Christian community is what we see in Jesus' ministry. It is an “intentional” community. Jesus intentionally chose twelve apostles in whom He invested His life. We too should discern our own “twelve,” with whom the Lord has called us to share our lives in a special way. We will love these brothers and sisters in deed and truth and not merely talk about it (1 Jn 3:18). Christian community is what we see in the Acts of the Apostles. The early Church devoted themselves to the apostles’ instructions, the communal life, the breaking of bread, and the prayers (Acts 2:42). Christian community is the daily sharing of life of Christ. Christian community is Trinitarian in that we have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “It was in one Spirit that all of us, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, were baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). Because Christian community is baptismal, it is Christian brotherhood and sisterhood. Because it is Trinitarian, baptismal, and fraternal, the heart of Christian community is “communion”, i.e. a supernatural communion given us by the Spirit (Lay Members of Christ's Faithful People, Pope John Paul II, 20). Because Christian community is based on our Baptism into the new and abundant life of the Trinity, Christian community is the daily sharing of life in Christ. Therefore, the essence of Christian community is baptismal brotherhood and sisterhood. Pope John Paul II has called this “communio.” “This is our highest vocation: to enter into communion with God and with our brothers and sisters” (Fraternal Life in Community, Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, 9 ).

The Church’s Teaching on Small Communities

We can contently affirm that, all the churches for the first three hundred years of Church history were small communities. However, the idea for these communities in the modern world came from Pope Paul VI's document On Evangelization in the Modern World, (58). Pope Paul VI said that Christian communities “will be a hope for the universal Church,” if they avoid becoming isolated from the larger Church and other Christian communities (On Evangelization in the Modern World, 58). Pope John Paul II has stated that Christian communities are a “great hope for the life the Church” (Mission of the Redeemer, 51). The latter has also taught that: “A rapidly growing phenomenon in the young churches - one sometimes fostered by the bishops and their conferences as a pastoral priority - is that of ‘ecclesial basic communities’ (also known by other names) which are proving to be good centers for Christian formation and missionary outreach. These are groups of Christians who, at the level of the family or in a similarly restricted setting, come together for prayer, Scripture reading, catechesis, and discussion on human and ecclesial problems with a view to a common commitment” (Mission of the Redeemer, 51). The pope emphasizes that: “These communities are a sign of vitality within the Church, an instrument of formation and evangelization, and a solid starting point for a new society based on a ‘civilization of love’ (Mission of the Redeemer, 51).

 Leading others into a Christian community?

All human beings are, by nature, communitarian. Therefore, to some degree we all are in communities, although these communities may not be Christian. These non-Christian communities are often related to family, business, entertainment, sports, hobbies, etc. Because most people are already involved in non-Christian communities, they are not free to enter into the total commitment of Christian community. However, they do not realize this. To lead someone into Christian community we must lead them out of non-Christian communities. Because non-Christian communities do not adequately fulfill our basic human desires, there is always at least a subtle sense of alienation in non-Christian communities. When a person is baptized, this alienation becomes more pronounced. Therefore, to lead a person out of non-Christian communities we simply need to help him get in touch with the natural and baptismal alienation he is already experiencing. The Holy Spirit will do this by leading him to renew his Baptism. The Spirit will work especially through those preaching, teaching, interceding, redemptively suffering, and fasting. The Spirit, “will prove the world wrong about sin, about justice, about condemnation” (Jn 16:8) and will crucify us to the world and the world to us (Gal 6:14). After a person is in touch with the natural and baptismal alienation he feels in non-Christian communities, he realizes that he is a stranger and in exile in this world (1 Pt 2:11). Then he will be open to Christian community, for he will still have a need for community but realize that non-Christian communities will not adequately fulfill him.

 

Baptism Builds a community: Following the Example of Saint Cecilia Virgin, Martyr, of the Second or Third Century

The story of S. Cecilia is not without beauty and merit. For over a thousand years St. Cecilia has been one of the most venerated martyrs of the early Church; she is among the seven martyrs named in the Canon of the Mass. According to a tradition current at the end of the fifth century, Cecilia was a Roman girl of patrician family, who had been brought up as a Christian. She fasted often, and wore a coarse garment beneath her rich clothing. Although she wished to remain a virgin, her father betrothed her to a young pagan named Valerian. When the wedding day came, Cecilia sat apart from the guests, repeating psalms and praying. After the ceremony, when the guests had departed and she was alone with her husband, Cecilia made known her great desire to remain as she was, saying that she already had a lover, an angel of God, who was very jealous. Valerian, shaken by suspicion, fear, and anger, said to her: “Show me this angel. If he is of God, I shall refrain, as you wish, but if he is a human lover, you both must die.” Cecilia answered: “If you believe in the one true and living God and receive the water of baptism, then you shall see the angel.” Valerian assented, and following his wife's directions sought out a bishop named Urban, who was in hiding among the tombs of the martyrs, for this was a time of persecutions. Valerian made his profession of faith and the bishop baptized him. When the young husband returned, he found an angel with flaming wings standing beside Cecilia. The angel placed chaplets of roses and lilies on their heads. The brother of Valerian, Tiburtius, was also converted; and after being baptized he too experienced many marvels. Valerian and Tiburtius devoted themselves to good works in behalf of the Christian community, and they made it their special duty to give proper burial to those Christians who were put to death by order of the prefect Almachius. The two brothers were themselves soon sentenced for refusing to sacrifice to Jupiter. Maximus, a Roman officer charged with their execution, was converted by a vision that came to him in the hour of their death. After professing Christianity, he too suffered martyrdom. The three were buried by the grieving Cecilia, and a little later she herself was sentenced. The prefect came and tried to reason with her, but when he found her firm in the faith and scornful of his threats, he gave an order that she was to be suffocated in her own bathroom. Surviving this attempt on her life, a soldier was sent to behead her. He struck at her neck three times, then left her lying, still alive, for it was against the law to strike a fourth time. She lingered on for three days, during which the Christians who remained in Rome flocked to her house. In dying she bequeathed all her goods to the poor, and her house to the bishop for a Christian place of worship. She was buried in the crypt of the Caecilii at the catacomb of St. Callistus.

In the ninth century Pope Paschal I moved the remains of many martyrs from the catacombs to new churches within the city; the presumed relics of St. Cecilia, her husband, his brother, and the Roman officer Maximus, were all placed in the church of St. Cecilia. The origin of her veneration as a patron of music is unknown to us. She was not associated with music in the early period or in the account given in the medieval Golden Legend by Jacobus Voragine, but artists of later times have delighted in depicting her at the organ, singing God’s praise or listening to a choir of angels. Her feast day is on November 22.

By Michael Mutinda, IMC.**