Monthly Spiritual Message, February 2005
By Br Patrick Colbourne OFM Cap,
Recently while conducting retreats in the Regions of Tasmania and Victoria several members of the SFO asked me to write a piece on fraternity. What follows is my response to that request.
Whereas some people find it natural to look at their spiritual life as a personal relationship between themselves and God, they find it more difficult to appreciate the communal aspect of their relationship with God. Community or fraternity may even appear to be something of an optional extra. If we take a step back from the spiritual life and consider the structures of the SFO some may see the various levels within the SFO fraternity not only as unnecessary but as a nuisance. It is important then that members of the SFO evaluate what fraternity means to them especially at a time when they are being called upon to rethink concepts such as “isolated” members and formation within a fraternity. Why is there so much being said about fraternity?
When some of Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him, perhaps because of personal disillusionment, Jesus asked those who remained, “Do you also wish to go away?” [Jn 6:67] Simon Peter answered Him “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
From the very beginning of His ministry Jesus gathered a group of disciples around him. They walked the hills of Galilee together while Jesus explained the Kingdom of God to them and they asked questions, argued and learnt. Their understanding was limited and they struggled to comprehend.
When he needed them in the garden they went to sleep and upon his arrest they fled in confusion and denial. Their world was shattered.
Instinctively they regrouped behind closed doors out of fear. Comfort arrived and their yearning to belong was fulfilled when Christ appeared greeting them with the words: ‘Peace be with you.’
Even after this they were still not clear regarding the nature of their mission and so they drifted back to Galilee, relapsed into their former occupation and went fishing. Suddenly Christ was upon the beach, directing them to successful fishing, providing them with breakfast and, as they ate together, admonishing them to go back to Jerusalem and pray. There as they waited in fraternity they received their marching orders in the overwhelming experience of Pentecost. A new society had been born.
Belonging is a fundamental human experience, crucial for establishing our personal identity and releasing the springs of creativity. We know only too well how an anonymous crowd can be the essence of loneliness. Every day we experience a neighbourhood where house windows are barred and we do not know the family in the third house by name nor do we care about what disturbs them. The bonds of family, neighbourhood, profession, political party or church that once helped us to make sense out of an otherwise chaotic world have been weakened to such an extent that rampant individualism turns ambition into a knife that cuts social relationships. We sense that such dysfunction is much more than the regular rhythm for all human beings between sociability and withdrawal into oneself.
The scribes and the Pharisees were critical of Jesus for eating and drinking with sinners but he did not stop doing it. St Luke [24: 13-34] describes two confused disciples walking disconsolately back to Emmaus on Easter evening who are joined by a stranger. They walk, talk and listen to each other and when they arrive at their house they offer him hospitality. It is while they are eating together that he reveals himself to them. For us too the climax of conviviality and of fraternity is Holy Communion.
God himself is a fellowship of Three Persons. This timeless communion to which we are invited is the model of our togetherness, of our belonging and we shall be restless until we rest in such fellowship.
In his First Letter St John says, ‘We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death’ [3:14]. Fraternity is the definitive realm where love is exercised. Fraternity is the obligatory circumstance for love. It is in no way an optional extra. St John says: ‘Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.’ [1 Jn 4: 8]
Patrick Colbourne O.F.M.Cap
SFO National Spiritual Assistant
