REFLECTIONS

"Why We Gather in His Name"

The smallest thing, a disturbance in the atmosphere, a change of temperature, is enough to destroy life. The frost of spring, an unusual drop in temperature on a May evening, and the harvest is destroyed. The same is true for the most important and most fragile part of man: his divine life .... The Christian community offers an environment that shows men how to live according to the ways of Christ, who assists, supports, and illuminates the heart of man.

Just as I do not invent my life, I do not invent my faith but instead receive it as it is. Likewise, I do not have to invent my prayer, but I receive Christ's prayer, born of the Spirit of God and already existing in the community of his children. The older people introduce the little ones to the life of Christ; the previous generations educate and admit the new generations into this movement of prayer born of Christ and supported by the fact that he is waiting for us .... No doubt, it is often the young who recall and demand the essential things, and the fervor of the new members revivifies that of the older ones. But it is also from the fidelity of the older members that the newly arrived draw truth, or else lose it. ...

The Church is able to offer me the prayer of Christ and to welcome me into a living environment, a community, where this prayer can originate and grow. Thus, it is no more a matter of choice for a "member" to live attached to his organism or to separate himself from it than it is for a Christian to do without his community. A man is Christian only if he is a member of Christ, and he is a member of Christ only if he receives within himself the life that comes through communion in faith and the prayer of his brothers.

FATHER BERNARD BRO, O.P.
Father Bro (┼ 2018) was a French Dominican friar, a distinguished theologian, and the author of many books.