Courageous Freedom

Community is wonderful for many reasons. One of the reasons can be explained by a couple of lines from the Prayer of Oscar Romero:

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

The past few days I have received another gift of community: blog ideas.

My most recent post about homemade toothpaste was prompted by a sister's suggestion. I have another entry formulating in my mind that came about through conversation as well. And, on Sunday, as I was singing a song down the hallway that we sang during Liturgy, someone said to me, "Sounds like a blog post!" It just happens to be that the lyrics to the song are:

We are many parts. We are all one body. And the gifts we have, we are given to share.

Yes, it goes right along with the second reading from Scripture (First Corinthians), which we heard this past Sunday:

Brothers and sisters:
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

You can see that while I am learning and witnessing what it means to live community during my postulancy, I am given much fodder for reflection, especially while also witnessing our current political climate where community appears nearly impossible at most times.

So, I started to think about what makes community hard. For me, one answer is trust. As a perfectionist who always like to do her best, it can be really hard to give over control and trust that someone else will get the job done and maybe even do it better than I could, to say that this is the time for feet to do the work, not the hands. Oh, so much vulnerability involved!

Nonetheless, it is a freeing idea, as the prayer reminds us, "There is a sense of liberation in realizing that." It is much easier to walk on our feet than to walk on our hands, after all. I often wonder when those who lead our country will begin to recognize the freedom, too. Perhaps it might happen if the leaders on both sides of the aisle can admit that they cannot all be the best at everything and agree to work together. That would take some major courage and vulnerability on their part.

But this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, right?

Let us walk in the holy presence.