FELLOWSHIP

 A desired intimacy enriches discipleship, but it needs to be focused on the Magister as the source of our love. Lacking this focus, it is best to enclose your heart in silence. This is a learning experience because it entails seeing things as God sees them, which integrates an ability to interpret the signs of the times underlined by an inclusive understanding (Gaudium et Spes, 29). 

Reading the encountered signs requires a heart that recognises in God its restfulness because, as pointed out by Saint Augustine, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. This requires a determination rooted in listening, as shown by Noah (Gen 5,32-10,1), but also an experienced fellowship no longer determined by prejudices or mere emotions. 

Fellowship, therefore, requires an inner equilibrium capable of eliminating the fear of the other: to recognise in the other, the other half of myself, for as we are told, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Prov 27,17). 

This understanding of fellowship gives sway to deeper insights, because “if we walk in the light, as he is the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son, cleanses us from all sin” (1Jn 1,7). 

Hence, evangelical fellowship is neither intended nor desired unless it envisages ‘committed love’ (Agape) as its benchmark (1Jn 4,8). It is not, therefore, confined to the apparent but reminds us to examine our heart: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean, but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean” (Mt 15,18-20).

Fear underlines much of our doings: relentless analysis consolidates it. Daydreaming about what is or is not ideal shackles the Kingdom’s mysterious workings within our hearts so that, blinded to its dynamism, we are impoverished of its joyfulness. 

What fellowship entails is to extend our encounter with the Magister: to enrich it by recognising in the faces encountered his presence. 

Martin  


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