Parable and Conscience Meditation July 10

Community  July 10

. . . we must guard against our falling into pure routine. If its work is to be effective, the entire life of the community, its common prayer, life, and work, must again and again be critically examined in the light of our special sources of inspiration, and above all in the light of the Gospel and its actualization in today’s world (Const. 8.2).

If I am a community member sensitive to its tradition and ready to defend it, I am important to the good functioning of the community.  On the other hand, if I am a member open to innovation and ready to initiate it, I am also important for the common good.  And if I find myself somewhere in between these two strong orientations, I have my importance, too.  In fact, a community must have a large range of postures about organizational change.  Such richness helps the group to avoid a “digging in” that fossilizes it, as well as an absence of form that causes it to dissipate.  Conservatives invite to fidelity, while innovators invite to creativity.  In the end, these inclinations together contribute to creative fidelity (or faithful creativity!) in the direction of the community.  It is routine that sounds the alarm that vital community dynamics are not at work and that the community’s existence is being threatened.

A man went alone to the plantation; he brought back fruit that wasn’t ripe.  (Akye)