COMMUNICATIONSneighbourhood christian community

May 2 0 1 4

Archbishop William Goh has called for the church in Singapore to be one that

builds missionary disciples and evangelizing communities. This points to the importance of the life of the community. We need to take care of the internal life of our community such that it is life giving, forming members into disciples, following the heart of Jesus. We evangelize our communities when the communities are filled with disciples ready to do the mission of the Church.

For those who were present at last year’s Archdiocesan NCC Day, you would recall that Fr Eugene Vaz, in his keynote address, spoke of the importance and necessity of community. The community has the role of forming its members. If our community is not doing that and helping us to grow, we need to ask why.

So you see that the formation of disciples and community are closely linked and we cannot grow one without the other. Disciples are formed in a community. It is only through interaction with others that we become aware of who we are and how we can grow. In turn, the members enrich the community.

Pope Francis, in one of his homilies last month spoke of the measure of a Christian Community. According to him, the first measure is a community in peace. This does not mean that there is no conflict but that

our attitude and disposition in the community should be that of love and forgiveness. The Beatitudes would be the blue print to use in forming disciples who are meek and humble of hearts, willing to forgive and are loving.

The second measure is that the community is made up of witnesses to the Risen Lord. We are to bear witness that Jesus is alive and among us. An evaluative question to ask ourselves then is this: have we experienced Jesus alive in our life? We can only witness to the Risen Lord when we have the experience and are living a life reflecting Jesus being alive and among people. Perhaps for a start, we can begin by helping each other to experience the Risen Lord among us.

The third measure of a community is the poor. The Pope made two distinctions: the community’s attitude towards the poor and the other is if the community is ‘poor’? This means that apart from caring for the poor, being poor in spirit is the way of the community. The community submits to the Holy Spirit and allow the Spirit to move all members to love and care for others.

Use these three measures to evaluate your community, after that discern what God is calling your community to do so that we can truly become what we are meant to be.