My Catholic Community (By Lisa Munyan): To put into context my own personal faith-based community and how it has effected me, the reader should know that I was raised a catholic in England and attended catholic schools primarily due to my devout catholic Irish grandparents. Twenty five years ago I moved to the US, married and raised two kids in a small rural town about an hour outside of Washington DC. and we are members of the local catholic church. To me this is a close-knit community and, while it has much to do with religion, the key is the genuine concern and care we have for each other as human beings.
Fifty years ago this community was a close knit one comprised primarily of farming and other traditional occupations. The railroad was a significant presence and so people here were used to hard physical labor and the inherent risks associated with working on farms and for the railroad. Thus, by necessity the community was well grounded in the reality of life and the very real everyday dangers that could snuff it out. Christianity had always been a cornerstone of life here and the Lutheran and Christ Reform Churches have both been here for over a hundred years. While each had its own loyal following, research shows that they have always worked together for the sake of the small agrarian community.
Do you think that the role of the religious institutions vary from one society to another according to its social, economic and political positions? How? Use the Add Comment feature to cast your view.
A Change of My Religious/Social Community
While the population explosion and the rapid expansion of the Washington DC “bedroom community” has changed this town dramatically over the past fifteen years, it is still relatively small. So it is curious that there are now at least six different faith-based places of worship call this home. We now have places of worship for Catholics, Baptists, Methodists and Episcopalians to name but a few. Not all of these groups were initially welcomed with open arms. For example, when our catholic church was under construction, it suffered at the hands of vandals on more than a couple of occasions. Sadly, there is still a Klu Klux Klan presence here, albeit minuscule.
Eighteen years ago, a far-sighted minister in this town suggested to his five counterparts that they meet each month to brain storm and pool resources. Since that time, all six leaders have faithfully met each month over coffee and this single act has done much to bring the best out in all of us. Now, the annual ecumenical service of thanksgiving isa huge event here, with each church taking turns hosting it. While each church retains its own unique identity and beliefs, by pooling ideas and resources the entire community now has a visiting nurse program, a food bank, grief counseling, shut-in care, children’s summer camp to name a few of the free services available to anyone. I would proffer that this is a community working together based on the broader faith of loving ones neighbor. But, the question begs, is that solely because the community is based on Christianity?
A Refection of All Faith-based Communities
Contemplating this, one instantly knows the answer is a resounding NO! Communities such as this one exist in every faith based community around the world. But what is the initiating factor?
I believe that ones religious belief is the most intimate and sacred aspect of ones very being. In the same way a husband and wife can only share a truly harmonious and intimate relationship if it is based on mutual trust and love, individuals who come together to worship do so knowing that the person next to them shares their very same religious belief and this knowledge reassures and comforts us. This is true for the Muslim, the Jew, the Catholic or Protestant. Simply by being present in a particular place of worship with another human being one has instant and intimate knowledge of his or her very being. It is this commonality which initially binds us, a seemingly random collection of strangers, as a community.
Now, I suppose one could say that this is a Christian community and that we come together as such. The largest town in our county which is just ten miles away is also home to a mosque, a Jewish temple and a Korean church. Each has thriving communities of various size that started within the walls of their own worship spaces. While the Jewish temple has been in this larger community for decades, the mosque, for example has not. It has been interesting to watch the adjustments, the growing pains the joys and the sorrows of our ever changing micro-world. We are being challenged to build a community alongside others with whom we do not share our own intimate beliefs! Aha! What to do! What a dilemma!
But God has His ways! We have been blessed by leaders of all faiths who have vision and are coming together to educate and help – not convert -each other. Our larger community is taking shape and beginning to work together in the same ways our little town. For a rural “white bread” community built upon Christianity, the growing pains have sometimes been hard. America, whose very existence came to be because of an overpowering desire to worship in freedom, is once again being challenged to adjust to an unfamiliar world that is no longer far away across the oceans and no longer an article in National Geographic. The world and all its religions are here!
For myself, I have found that as I have aged I have become far less dogmatic in my faith and far more God-centered, far less engrossed by the ritualistic and man-made teachings of my church and instead more focused on the call to be giving and compassionate.
Interfaith Visit
Our county is blessed to have an Imam of great foresight, intellect and kindness running the Mosque here. He has been an active proponent of bringing together the larger community. He has invited everyone to visit with the Islamic community and has done the honor of speaking at our catholic church too. His message has been a simple one. We have more in common with one another than we have differences. He points out that there are over twenty religions which have as a main tenet of their faith philosophy The Golden Rule, or some variation of it… “Do unto others as one would have done unto you”. No word of Christ or Allah or God there, just a simple rule that even atheists and agnostics follow. This belief is the intimate knowledge we have of our neighbor that is the bedrock upon which we can build a harmonious and loving community.
Most conflict is based upon fear of the unknown. Understanding and acceptance of others is facilitated by The Golden Rule. That each different religious community lives that rule is what truly makes it a community and is the first step toward bringing down the veils of fear and distrust.
For myself, I have found that as I have aged I have become far less dogmatic in my faith and far more God-centered, far less engrossed by the ritualistic and man-made teachings of my church and instead more focused on the call to be giving and compassionate. I find I am less a catholic than I am a child of God. I am definitely a work in progress!
I close with an idea that my favorite old priest sowed in my heart long ago. We had read the parable of the loaves and fishes, an account of how Jesus had taken five loaves of bread and two fishes and performed a miracle that multiplied these provisions so much so that there was enough food to feed the thousands who had come to hear Jesus speaking. My old priest had an unorthodox interpretation of this well-loved parable.
“Would it not have been a greater miracle” said my priest with a glint in his eye, “If Jesus had persuaded the crowd to share the meager provisions that they had brought with them with the complete strangers around them?”
I think my old priest was on to something!
By Lisa Munyan
Freelance Writer, USA
Courtesy: Onislam