Community: The Basic Quest from Mother Theresa

Putting the final touches on an upcoming workshop on community — what is it and why do we do it — here are two great quotes — the first from Jesus, the second from Mother Theresa. I challenge us all — let’s not just read them — let’s look at the faces of three people we come across – at least two strangers, and think about what it truly means to incarnate the love God created us to receive and give.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23

“People today are hungry for love, for understanding love, which is…the only answer to loneliness and great poverty. That is why we are able to go to countries like England and America and Australia, where there is no hunger for bread. But there people are suffering from terrible loneliness, terrible despair, terrible hatred, feeling unwanted, feeling helpless, feeling hopeless. They have forgotten how to smile, they have forgotten the beauty of the human touch. They are forgetting what is human love. They need someone who will understand and respect them.”
Mother Theresa