Community June 30
For charity, it is written, “is not self-seeking,” meaning that it places the common good before its own, not its own before the common good (Rule of St. Augustine, 31).
The Rule of St. Augustine counsels every member of the community to prefer the common good to personal well-being. That means that, as a Crosier, I must pay more attention to the interests of the community than to my own interests. Otherwise stated, I put worries about myself at the end of the list of my concerns. St. Augustine teaches, along with the Gospel, that one measures progress in Christian life by response to this counsel. The more common interests take priority over personal interests, the more Christian one is. If I look to my own concerns in the religious community before thinking of those of others, if I promote in the ministry the advantage of my own tribe or clan before that of the rest of the tribes and clans, if I work for the development of my region at the expense of others, thinking that I am doing something lasting in all these situations, I deceive myself. Quite the contrary, I am contributing to the deconstruction of the community, of the Church, of society and, in the end, of myself. It is our religious life that ought to teach this vital lesson.
If two old people quarrel, they will die in misery. (Lega)
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