From Brokenness to Community

I just finished reading, “From Brokenness to Community” by Jean Vanier. The book was originated from two lectures given by Jean Vanier at Harvard University. It is a very short book, but very thought provoking and challenging. I recommend it to everyone (especially you Rhode Islanders ;)) Here is an excerpt from the book:


“We continually need to have before us the challenge of our mission. We are not in a community just to protect ourselves. We are not even there just to protect our own little spiritual lives. We’re there for the church, for people in pain. We have a message to give, and we have a message to receive. We have a mission, and if we are not a people of mission, then the community is in danger of closing up, and of dying.
Of course for Christians, the greatest becoming is entering into a deeper and more intimate relationship with Christ. It is, finally, a mystical union with God. Perhaps this is the heart of the message of every religion, but it is very much the heart of the Christ. We are called to be a people of freedom because we have received the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is our friend leading us to communion with the father.
Thus community is not an end or a final goal in itself. It is the place where we can meet Christ and discover his love for humanity and for every person. Martin Buber said that the community is the place of the theophany. It is the place where we meet God in a very intimate relationship, where we can have that experience of being “seized by Christ.” God loves us and draws us into the mystery and the love of the Trinity; there we can rest in his love. But community only keeps its meaning if it remains open to mission.”