Community as a Quality of Heart

I was listening to an interview with Augustine Fuentes – who is a biologist and also a cultural anthropologist. Really fascinating. He was talking about how the very functioning of our neurobiological systems, our digestive system, the hormones, and enzymes – circulating throughout our bodies are deeply affected by our social interactions with others.

In other words, we have this built-in biological need to touch and be touched, to talk and debate and laugh together, to smile, and to interact in groups. From a biological standpoint – these things are central to our health.

He claimed that this “…just underscores why this pandemic, is so completely stressful to us on every single level, and at a physiological level, as well…This lack of connections, these distancing’s, even though they’re so important for overall health and for societal and economic health, we need to be aware that we have to find some way to keep social…”

We have to find some way to keep social – and yet still distance.

It’s been a really difficult year.  But there is a light at the end of the tunnel – thanks be to God. This time of physical distancing may go on for a while. But it will end.  There will come a time when we can be reconnected with extended family and friends.  There will come a time when we will reconnect in person with our church families.

In the meantime, there is a deeper tie that binds us together as a church family.

Spiritual giant and pastor Henri Nouwen once wrote: “We have to keep in mind that community, like solitude, is primarily a quality of the heart. While it remains true that we will never know what community is if we never come together in one place, community does not necessarily mean being physically together. We can well live in community while being physically alone…”

When it is the Spirit of God that unites us in community – when we bear another’s burdens, when we share in each other’s joys and sorrows, no distance of time or place can separate us.

Let us pray: Loving God, we pray today especially for those who feel alone.  May they feel our prayers and our love even now. And may they know your deep and abiding presence. We long for an end to this pandemic. And we trust our very lives again to your care. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.