I recently read an article about the distinction between our private lives and our public lives and it affects the community at large. I found it provocative and I want to share some of it with you as we reflect on the power of community.
Fr. Ron Rolhesier says, that “No one is an island; indeed, no one is ever really alone. If you are a person of faith or even just someone with a highly attuned intuitive sense, you will know that there is no such thing as a truly private act, for good or bad. Everything we do, no matter how private, affects others. We aren’t isolated monads whose private thoughts and acts have no effect on anyone else. We know this, and not just from our faith. We know it intuitively by what we sense in our lives. How do we sense what lies hidden in the privacy of other people’s lives? Conversely, how does what happens in the privacy of our own lives affect others?
We don’t have a metaphysics, a phenomenology, or a science through which we can tease this out explicitly. We just know it is true. What we do in the private recesses of our hearts and minds is in some ways sensed by others. Every religion worthy of the name teaches this, namely that we are all in some real, mystical, symbiotic communion with one another where ultimately nothing is truly private.”
For good or bad, our private actions affect each other and when we think about it, there is lots of evidence in our own lives about that being true, whether it be our days in high school, college, working world or family life. Other people’s actions affect us and our actions affect others.
That is a core belief of our Catholic faith; that we are the living Body of Christ, not just metaphorically but really. We are ONE body of Christ in which the actions of every part of body effects the other part of the body. Over these last several weeks, we heard in second readings on Sunday from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians about us being the Body of Christ and how all the parts of the body affect each other. No part of the body lives alone. No one is an island!
Recently one of my brothers hurt his foot and he has to wear one of those boots for a few weeks to recover. Every step he takes, his whole body knows that the foot hurts. The whole body hurts when the foot hurts and this is obvious to him now. However, any of us who have no apparent hurting part of our body need to be reminded of that reality.
Every year at this time, we do an annual appeal on behalf of the bishop for the whole Church of San Jose Diocese. It is called the Annual Diocesan Appeal (ADA) and we raise funds for the whole Church so the local church can run smoothly. We are being reminded of the needs of the rest of the Body of Christ. It is good for us to be reminded because we may not think it affects us but it does in a deeper way than we care to admit. For some parishioners, this appeal feels optional because we do not see what the other members of the Church do and contribute to us. That is understandable in a lot of respects—the foot does not understand what the pancreas does for the body but when the pancreas is sick, the whole body will soon know! We need all parts of the local Church to function well so we are all healthy and can operate as a healthy body of Christ. We need to help the ADA because we need the whole Body of Christ locally to be healthy.
This weekend at all Masses we will hear from the co-chairs of the ADA, Jim and Terri Chapman. They will introduce the appeal and talk about why we ought to support it. Next weekend I will ask us all to participate in whatever way we are able to. Please come with an open mind to hear why we ought to support our diocese in supporting the local Church. Thank you.
God Bless,
Fr. Brendan