The Portuguese language has this
beautiful concept - Saudade - which describes
the nostalgia and longing we can feel for a place/person that
is lost. Growing up outside of my ‘home country’ I often experienced bouts of
this - especially following big family parties, never quite knowing where it
issued from or why. A language that was familiar but unintelligible; food which
brought comfort but was foreign, even music which could evoke deep set
memories.
It was not that something was ‘missing’ per se but, rather, that I had never
possessed my community to begin with. I have found that stepping into adulthood
while we start to become grounded as individuals, we also start to gravitate back towards those that we identify
strongly with - our families, our communities - because that sense of knowing
oneself and belonging is a fundamental
human need.
I think that this also true when it comes to faith: our Catholic
communities reflect where we have all come from and who we have the potential
to be. So it follows that part of our faith journey is to
enter wholeheartedly into our immediate communities or parishes. Scary, I know!
If you’re anything like me (which varies from quiet, introverted to alarming
levels of extroverted energy and noise) all I can say is: dive headfirst and
keep these points in mind.
“I’m only here for
Jesus” can also be an excuse to not talk to anyone
It can be so tempting to leave straight after mass on Sundays.
I use to absolutely loath having to go into the parish centre for tea. But my
mum’s persistence, and the older people I began to talk to, gently rubbed down
my attitude over the years. People I saw week-in-week-out who could have been
complete strangers suddenly became for me a symbol of faithfulness and humanity
in all its different aspects. Whether it was getting to know parishioners who
were widowed, families, those who suffered debilitating disease, or more
personally as family friends. These were the very people who built up my
understanding of Catholic teaching, of charity and genuine friendship.
When we first moved here all those years ago, the first
friends my mother made were parishioners. Having left the church for a while,
when I did decide to go back it was these very people who had remembered me as
a child and welcomed me back.
“Now
you
are the
body
of
Christ, and each of you is a member of it”
[1
Corinthians 12:27]
Since we are all the body of Christ, our communities are the church and we belong to each
other. If Mass is only about ‘me’ in isolation from ‘others’ we have completely
missed the point that we are called to a holistic faith - just as God is
Trinitarian, we too are called to live in community and lead each other to
Christ.
Community will be
your backup memory
You will almost certainly go through periods during which
doubt is the impossible shadow on a cloudy day. Yet there he is, defiant and
stubborn. It can hit us in the most subtle ways (“one day without prayer won’t
count”) to full on disillusionment (“I’m literally just talking to myself”). No
matter how we experience a wearying in our faith, community is our physical
reminder that no matter how we feel sensually disconnected from God, we are
spiritually tethered to him, and can grow in faithfulness by choosing him
despite our doubts. Seeing the faithfulness of others, witnessing how God is
working visibly or spiritually in their lives serves as a source of hope for
our own lives.
One of Rene Magritte’s most evocative paintings, called Le Mal du Pays (homesickness), can be looked at in
this light to give us a visual metaphor. It shows a man looking out
over a river, in the presence of a Lion, appearing unaware of its presence. At
times we can be like the man, stuck in the weight of our doubts, the feeling of
an absent Christ, and our nostalgia for ‘what was’, so much so that we cannot
turn in faith to see he is elsewhere (if hidden). Our communities, like the
bridge barrier, hold us at bay so eventually we turn toward Christ.
In
the end all that is left is our relationships with one another
Ultimately, community helps prepare us for our heavenly lives.
'Then
I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away.'
Revelation
21:1
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