On Sundays we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. When I was young, I was a loner and would go to Catechism class by myself and go to church by myself, and of course, end up going home by myself. At times, my brother was with me. As I grew older and as my parents aged (my dad was a convert in his 50s), we began to go to Church together. Did I feel a part of the faithful community then? Not much.
For some of us, we hear the call to serve in a ministry. And some of you may hesitate. From friends, we may have heard some gossip about how ministries function, or how some ministry members have left because of infighting or that there were disagreements about how events are organised, misunderstandings between ministry members, adultery among parishioners, etc. At times, it was hard to hear people comment, ‘You Christians are hypocrites!’.
Do I have a right to a perfect community?
I asked some fellow parishioners over dinner about the right for us to expect a perfect community.
To help me understand how true believers can falter too, they cited Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 5, where Ananias and his wife Sapphira lied to the apostles and tried to embezzle money from a property sale. Peter called them out on this and exposed the spiritual battle that is raging – that Satan now attacks Christ’s mission from within as he has done before in Judas. The “father of lies” (John 8:44) starts in the heart, the source of all decisions concerning possessions and their relation to God (Luke 12:34). Ananias shows not simply a lack of honesty in bringing only a part of the sale price but also a lack of integrity–bringing only a part while pretending to bring the whole.
So can we lay the blame on Satan – “The devil made me do it.”? The only power the devil has is the power you give him. He has no power over you if you resist all his attempts to make you sin.
St. Augustine wrote, “If you are afraid of the devil, he is a giant to you. If you despise him, he is only a dwarf to you.”
So are you perfect?
We are tempted in many ways and so we are not perfect. And since we are not perfect, the community can’t be perfect either.
So should we shy away from being involved in the community?
In Hebrews 10:24-25, we remember the call to be community:
“And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
Community is a place to grow through challenges
We are encouraged to read the bible and to be familiar with scripture which is God’s Word to us, His guide to how to live our life.
A Christian friend shared this with me on hearing about this article. She said we need to go from having ‘Head Knowledge’ to ‘Walking with the Lord’.
Hence, being involved in a community, we can learn to become more holy, and closer to Jesus and to God. There will always be challenges when people try their best to work together but if we see these as opportunities to do things for God and to grow closer to God, then we as individuals will grow and the community will flourish too.
By Karen Roberts-Fong