My friend tells me she’s going to get me a t-shirt with a capital ‘C’ crossed out and a very bright lower case ‘c’. I didn’t think I so often said, “I am a Catholic with a small ‘c’” but I guess I do. I started doing that after a Methodist friend told me she had a hard time saying, “I believe in the holy catholic church.” when reciting the Apostle’s Creed. She felt much better about it after I explained that “catholic” with a small ‘c’ means universal. It doesn’t refer to the Roman Catholic church (though that’s part of it).
I’ve put my own slant on the definition of the small ‘c’ and in my mind it’s come to mean ‘community’. I could even go so far as to say, “I believe in the holy ‘community’ church,” with the word ‘church’ being optional....only because when most people read or say the word, ‘church’, a physical building comes to mind.
But I digress. The whole reason for this blog is not to discuss the fact that all (or most) Christian denominations recite the Apostle’s Creed....though that’s a good point. Nor is it my intention to expound on my definition of ‘church’....except to say the words ‘church’ and ‘community’ can be interchangeable. I’m going to try not to wander too far away from my intended subject.
I believe in holy community. When you read the words, ‘holy community’, you might initially think of those people you join with in formal worship at Mass or Sunday services. Though you’d be correct in thinking that, it’s not quite where I’m going with this.
My definition of ‘holy community’ is those people with whom I share God. Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered....there I am also” . The community, therefore, may be the sharing of two or the sharing among many.
Sometimes I think of God as a jigsaw puzzle. As God lives in all of us, regardless of religion, denomination, belief or nationality, each one of us holds within ourselves a “piece” of God. This, in my thoughts, makes it necessary for us to join and fit all the pieces together until we become the whole. The whole being God.
This is holy community. The only thing which truly matters is the recognition and sharing of God. How wonderful it is when I have that opportunity...when I recognize and reach out to the “piece of God” within someone else.
Someone referred to the prayer group as “warriors’ the other day and in my mind, I saw all joined together as one huge army of God....given the weapons of love and peace with which to change the world... but that’s another blog.
We are all catholic with a small ‘c’.....one holy community. God bless!
