Community

Thinking through how life can be transformed by the Quaker “SPICES” (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship), I turn my attention to “Community.”

 In the early days of my spiritual journey other people frequently challenged me to experience community by joining a “small group” of one variety or another.  Most spiritual paths encourage participation in some kind of intentional, relational, spiritual community. Over the past several decades, I have been part of more than a few of these groups as I have moved from city to city. Some of them were life-giving and meaningful; others, not so much.

Finding dynamic community with fellow humans is one of life’s greatest rewards, yet is difficult to achieve and even more challenging to maintain.

The most dynamic experience of community in my own life was not a result of such intentional effort. It arose from living in a college dormitory and making lifelong friends there. Without ever planning it, we became like family, eating together, studying together, travelling together, playing together, rejoicing together when one had reason to rejoice, and mourning together when anyone had reason to mourn. Although these friendships have endured the test of time, they now are long-distance in nature.

The best intentional communities I have ever belonged to resembled those relationships with my college friends. They were life-giving. But due to the realities of life, they lasted only a season.

The worst experiences of community in my life, though well-intentioned, were destined to fail because the people in the group did not have enough in common, or because the conversations were trite and filled with cliches.

While finding a group of people with which to share regular community is vital, there is a challenge beyond the mere physical expression. Recently I have begun to understand community as something more than just what is experienced by spending time with a group of people.

In his book The Contemplative Heart, James Finley includes a section entitled “Find Your Contemplative Community and Enter It.” At the time I first read the book, I was yearning for another healthy, vibrant small group of like-minded spiritual sojourners, but was struggling to find a group near me. I was hopeful that reading this section of Finley’s book would magically solve my dilemma! At least I hoped for some practical guidance. But the book provided none of that. Instead, Finely took a more holistic perspective about the ultimate meaning of community.

He writes:

“…our emphasis will not be on finding and entering our contemplative community in the narrow sense of finding a group of people who share with us a desire to live a more contemplative way of life. Rather, our emphasis will continue to be on finding and entering our contemplative community in the more fundamental sense of contemplative experience itself awakening us to the unitive nature of the life we are living.”

I cannot begin to explain what Finley does so eloquently - I highly recommend reading the book! Here, I simply offer that the tangible community we find in our family of origin, our childhood companions, our adult friendships, and our small groups can only take us so far. Ultimately, we must transform our perspective to one of unitive seeing if we are to truly know community. There is a true sense in which we are all one. We are one with the Divine. We are one with each other. This unity is literal, not merely metaphorical. Seeing this aspect of community transforms us.

This deeper dive into the value of community releases power within me to truly love. I am enabled to “love my neighbor as myself” as I begin to understand that love of neighbor and love of self are essentially the same. I am loved, and therefore I can join the flow of that love, which is what it means to love my neighbor as myself. Once I see the flow of love coming to me and then flowing through me, I begin to find the power to do the unthinkable, which is to love my enemy. Love for my enemy does not even make sense if it is something I must generate on my own. But once I see the unity in all things, and my participation in the flow of always-available love, then it begins to compute. Community becomes a flowing stream of reality all around me. I am always invited to jump into the current.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.