Au In the beginning was the Word
 


YOU ARE THE LIGHT
The signal of the community
1. The best thing that can happen to any one searching for the light or searching God is to find a signal (Mt 11, 5) or to find a community that is a signal of the Gospel. Jesus says to his disciples: “You are the light of the world”, “a lamp is not lit to place it under a bushel, but on the candlestick, so that it gives light to everybody at home” (Mt 5, 14 – 15). Such a community, is it an utopia? , is it possible?, which are its features?
2. Not everything is valid. Amidst the Judaism John’s call comes out: “Deliver fruits of conversion, and do not be saying for yourselves: We have Abraham as father” (Lk 3, 8). When baptized in the Jordan, Jesus keeps the same line (3, 21). In a similar way the call of the Council bursts into the conventional christianism. It is not valid to say: We are all life Catholics. Another thing is necessary. That conventional christianism generates a deep dissatisfaction. It is necessary to go back to the sources, to live in community.
3. The community is a signal among society, a signal that transmits faith experience. Which community do we talk about? The model rests in the first communities. The Council was, really, convoked for this: “to give back to the face of the Church of Christ all its splendour, revealing the simplest and purest traces of its origin” (John XXIII, preparatory speech of the Council, November 13, 1960). This Pope John’s text (so precious and forgotten) is recalled by John Paul I to his theological counsellor, and he ads: “We should not forget the deep reasons that inspired and wanted the Council” (Bassoto, 124). Have them been forgotten?
4. It has accurately been said that the most important text of the Council is that of the first Christian community (Acts 2, 42 – 47). When the Council plans what the Church must be, it goes to Acts 2 (LG 13, 1; DV 10,1 ); when it plans what the way of life of a priest will be, it goes to Acts 2 (PO 17, 4 and 21,1 ); when it plans what the way of life of a missionary will be, it goes to Acts 2 (AG 25,1); when it plans what the religious life should be, it goes to Acts 2 (PC 15, 1).
5. The first communities are groups of men and women who usually meet the day of the Lord (Rev 1, 7). Among them a relationship of fraternity is established. So, the mystery of communion that constitutes the Church (see LG 1) is made visible even to the eyes of the non- believers. They are like a large family. The foundation of that communion, what really agglutinates the new family of the disciples is the word of God. As Jesus said, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and act on it" (Lk 8, 21). He who accepts the Word is united to the community. In the first communities, the Word of God becomes experience of Christ (Acts 2, 36 ) and experience of conversion (2,38).
6. Like the prophetic communities (2 Kings 2, 7; 4, 43), the first communities are a minority within society, but they are the light of the world, like a town on a mountain (Mt 5, 14), like yeast in the dough (Lk 13, 21). In them is present a strong process of preaching the gospel to adults, and also to children. The oldest catechesis is done by immersion in the community’s life.
7. They meet together where they can, usually in homes. Here, for example in the house of John Mark’s mother, in Jerusalem (Acts 12, 12); in the house of Aquila and Prisca, in Ephesus and in Rome (1 Co 16, 19); in the house of Philemon, in Colossae (Phlm 2); in the house of Nympha, in Laodicea (Col 4, 5). In its origin, the word parish (para-oikía) refers to the first communities that meet together in their homes (Acts 2, 46). In Rome the home of Pudens could be a meeting place. In Saint Pudenciana bricks with the legend Q. Servius Pudens. Other roman churches are also built over houses. About the year 232, the house of Dura Europos, at the banks of the river Eufrates, is a meeting place; 60 persons fit in its sitting room.
8. The community is a place of teaching, communion, celebration and prayer: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles,   the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers (Acts 2, 42). Signs are present in the community (Acts 2, 45).The signs confirm the Word revealed (Mk 16, 20). Hearts communion is seen in the sharing of possessions: "All the believers lived together and had everything in common"(Acts 2, 44). And also, "No one claimed any possessions as theirs." (4, 32). The community is welcoming and it is open to new members: "Every day the Lord added those who were to be saved" (2, 47).
9. How are the first communities organized? They are an association which listens the Word. They have a council, the group of the twelve (Mt 10, 1 – 5), that is updated after Judas death (Acts 1, 21 – 26). They listen the related word (1, 16 – 20). They have an objective: to incorporate disciples (Mt 2819) and a programme: the law and the prophets, the Gospel (5, 17). Many of them leave (J 6, 66); there are few who come in through the narrow door (Mt 7, 13 – 14). The groups of Aramaic language, formed by those jealous followers of the law, grow a lot (Acts 21, 20). . They meet with an objective (Acts 2, 1): to complete the group of the twelve (1, 15 – 26), to elect the seven belonging to the group of Greek language (6, 2 – 5); to talk about the gentiles business (15, 6). They have standards for the admission, for operation, for the exclusion from the community (Acts 2, 38; Mt 4, 17; 7, 1 – 5; 18, 1 – 35). The “apostles and the elderly” adopt decisions (if the apostles are present), “in common agreement”, “the holy spirit and us” (Acts 15, 22.25.28). Peter presides (Mt 16, 18), but is has to justify his action (Acts 11, 4). Like the synagogues, the communities are leaded by “elderly” (20, 17; 21, 18. 20), also called “vigilantes” (20, 28), “vigilantes and serve4rs” (Phil 1, 1; Mk 9, 35); Febe is “maid server” (Rm 16, 1); “there is no more distinction between man and woman” (Ga 3, 28).
The Jews call “sect” to the newly born Church (25, 5.14). Paul, eventually calls for his rights of roman citizen (22, 25 – 29).
10. In the middle of the 2nd century, the author of the Letter to Diocletian writes: "Christians are not different from other men, neither by country of origin, language or customs... They live in their own homelands, but as strangers; they participate in all things as citizens and they suffer everything as foreigners; all strange land is homeland to them, and all homeland is strange land. They get married as everybody else; and as everybody else they have children, but they do not expose them. They set a common dinner table but not a bed. They are in the flesh but they do not live according to the flesh. They pass their time on earth but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the established laws, but with their lives they are above the laws” (V, 1-10).
11. The first communities find themselves in an adverse political and religious situation. Saint Paul says, "We are afflicted in every way but not constrained" (2 Co 4, 8-9). In the Letter to Diogneto it is written also about those Christians: "They love everybody and they are persecuted by everybody. They are unknown and they are condemned. They are poor but they enrich many. They have nothing and they have an abundance of everything. They are dishonoured, and in the same dishonours they are glorified. They are cursed and they are declared just. They are criticized and they praise. They are slandered and they carry themselves with honour. They do well and they are punished as dishonest; punished to death, and they are delighted, as if they were given life. By the Jews, they are fought as foreigners; by the Greeks they are persecuted, and nevertheless the same ones that hate them cannot give a reason for their hate” (V, 11-17).
12. The community is the most sensitive way that we have to listen to the Word of God, to recognize Christ’s presence, to perceive the action of the Spirit. It is the pool of Siloam, where the man born blind is cured from his original blindness (Jn 9, 7). It is the place where Paul, blinded by the light of the Lord on his way to Damascus, regains sight and strength (Acts 9, 3-19). It is the womb where the new man is conceived "through the living and abiding Word of God" (1Pe 1, 23). It is the body of Christ (1 Co 12, 27), boosted by the spirit of God (1Co 12, 13).
13. Being a community, the Church is light of the people (LG 1), a sign raised amidst nations (SC2), universal sacrament of salvation (GS 45). It is not the individual but the community which can preach the gospel. It is not the individual person, but the community which deeply renews the Church. It is not an individual person, but the community which can give an effective answer to present society, such as it is configured now. It’s not a person, but the community that can live today the signs of the Gospel.
14. Nowadays, it is necessary to rebuild the community fabric of the Church. In the Synod on Catechism (1977) this proposal was almost unanimously approved: "In fact, quite a few parishes, for different reasons, are far from being a true Christian community. Nevertheless, the ideal way to renew this communitarian dimension of the parishes could be to convert them to a community of communities” (prop. 29; see CL 26) We sing it from years ago: It is not, no, the inert Church/ that sees with discouragement/ in decay the old Christianity./ It is the one that converts itself/ and comes back to the sources/ of the newly born Church,/ being community”.

* Dialogue: Is it necessary the community?