Communities for the Spirit

I have never been a tribal person. Even in high school I preferred having just a few close friends whom I spent time with individually, rather than a group. When one of those special high school friends, Sandy, recently passed away, I dreaded the variety of funeral related activities where I would be forced to parade my grief past hundreds of well-meaning people whom I had not seen in many years.

I walked into the pre-visitation viewing prepared to politely greet, and quickly escape the well-meaning visitors. Before I had time to gasp at the sight of my precious friend, painted and coifed in her casket until she was totally unrecognizable, two of our closest friends from high school had their arms around me. We held each other, sobbing. The years of separation disappeared and we were once again loving friends sharing a common loss.

Throughout the events of the next few days I was awed by the support I felt from this “tribe” who could share the joy of having had Sandy in our lives and the grief of losing her –with total understanding of each other’s despair. Suddenly the importance of community became clear to me.

A few weeks later I had the honor of spending time with Father Ekuturi Raphael a Catholic priest who has devoted his life to working with the poorest of the poor in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India.  I asked Father Raphael how the goals of his ministry differed in an environment where life is so delicate and suffering so epidemic. 

“Nancy”, he told me.  “To bring them a faith in God is most important. That lifts them from their despair. But second is to give them a sense of community. In a place where people must fight for every scrap of food, they still come together and forget their differences and their fighting when they pray together.”

September 11 brought the entire country together as one community. Religion does it daily for the millions of faithful. And personal tragedy does it all too often in each of our lives. Whatever the causes, when we unite as one community, it is truly overwhelming and humbling to be filled with the oneness that God must have intended when he created all of us in his own image – the one image of humanity.

Comments

[Rebecca]

I feel really touched by this story. I wish for more community, more sharing, more love, more spirit. The world can be a lonely place...it feels good to hear about how you were able to connect and bring in more light.