The Importance of Community

Today I head off to spend time with friends from College. It’s been about 3 years since our last reunion, and a lot has happened since that time.

I mean, basically the world came to a screeching halt — and these women were some of the voices that kept me hopeful, kept me laughing and reminded me just how important friendship is in our lives.

Maybe this last year has taught you that, too. I hope that it has, because we were not meant to do this life on our own.

We were meant to be part of a family, and beyond that, we were meant to be part of a community of people who will support, challenge and encourage us in our pursuit of God.

Go all the way back to the earliest ideas of the human person and you will find it is generally acknowledge by the greatest minds that we were created to live in community with others — and that without community, we will never actual realize our full potential as a human being.

“Man is by nature a social animal; Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. ”

Aristotle, Politics

Keep in mind that Aristotle lived thousands of years before Jesus, and obviously as Christians, we know that God Himself is a communion of three persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — Aristotle didn’t benefit from that revelation, but there truth of what he says remains.

God doesn’t need us — but He does desire to love and be loved by us — and He desires that we live in communion with others as well.

God created us social by nature. God created us to desire union with others — to imitate the loving communion of the Trinity by the way we love each other here on earth — and to discover the deepest part of who we are in community.

This is most especially true for family — but it also rings true for the people we develop friendships with throughout our lives. We become better people when we learn to live with and love the people around us. We become more human when we learn to sacrifice for our family and for our friends.

The earliest Christian communities were just that — a community of people who supported each other in faith and in their desire to share God’s love with the world.

That Aristotle was absolutely right. We need to live in community. Any man or woman who stares at a screen all day or fails to interact with other human beings will slowly loses their humanity, slowly lose the very best of who they are, slowly become more of a beast than a man if they allow it to continue.

Which is why we can not live our lives in isolation. We need each other!

All men are called to the same end: God himself. There is a certain resemblance between the unity of the divine persons and the fraternity that men are to establish among themselves in truth and love. Love of neighbor is inseparable from love for God.

The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature. Through the exchange with others, mutual service and dialogue with his brethren, man develops his potential; he thus responds to his vocation.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 1878 and 1879

It’s one of the reasons why I’m taking off this weekend and spending some time with some amazing women who I am blessed to call friends — which is a gift I will cherish — but I know that a getaway every few years ins’t going to cut it. We need to build community right where we are.

So do it. Build community, right where you are. Pray for community if you don’t have any, and then be willing to be part of the beauty and messiness that is life in community. All that messiness is good for us too, because it reminds us that we are all sinners and we all need to work on growing to be a more perfect reflection of the love of Christ in the world.

And maybe every once in a while, take that opportunity to connect with friends from far off places. It’s an adventure that will likely be full of wonderful memories you will take back with you to your family and friends at home.

I know that it is difficult for a mom to imagine getting away, but any time I have taken a weekend for a retreat or a little getaway, I am always so grateful for the opportunity to just be — be with God and be with friends — and a little Prosecco and delicious food never hurt either, am I right?

Honestly, I’m leaving the kids in amazing hands (shoutout John!) and whatever I forget, he’ll tackle it like a champ. They are going to be just fine, and it goods to reminded that your family can survive without you micro-managing everything, ya know?

In fact, they’ll probably have way more fun with John around — so I know we’ll all be having a rollicking good time in our own ways.

So hooray for little getaways, and hooray for remembering that we are social in nature and we need to make time for human connection.

Have a lovely weekend!