It’s Not Good to Be Alone - Part 2
By John Jelinek
On our last journey, we explored God’s statement, “it is not good for the man to be alone” (Gn 2:18).
We saw that we are created in the image of a Triune God and are therefore meant to be in communion with others. Marriage and family are the first place we are invited to mirror the inner life of the Trinity.
In addition to our immediate families, God has given us a universal family, the Church — a community of people in union with one another and God. St. John says, “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 1:3).
The Church is essential in salvation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that God “willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge Him and serve Him in holiness” (781).
In the Old Testament, God’s salvation plan is marked by an ever-expanding community. It begins with Adam and Eve and grows into a nation. However, membership was limited to the descendants of God’s Chosen People.
In the New Testament, Jesus continues to grow God’s people and places great significance on community. Christ gathers the apostles around Himself, establishes the Church, sets Peter as its first pope, prays that we might be one and sends the Holy Spirit to guide the Church after His ascension.
Unlike the exclusive covenants of the Old Testament, Christ’s Church is distinctly inclusive, or catholic.The term “catholic” means “universal,” making it a fitting name for Christ’s Church. Both its message of salvation and community are universal. All people of every nation, race and walk of life may call the Church their family.
Like family, the Church reflects the self-giving and life-giving love of the Trinity.
This is seen in our priests who give their lives to shepherd and nourish the community with the sacraments. For the laity, it is a community in which they can find meaning, support, fellowship and inspiration from one another and the Communion of Saints.
This is not to say that the Church is perfect. Like family, the Church here on Earth is filled with broken, sinful and hurting people in need of salvation. Making the community work takes grace, commitment and effort.
Participating in Christ’s new and everlasting covenant means we are bound to His Church for better or worse. Like wedding vows that profess commitment in difficult times, our baptismal vows should include, “even if there is poor music, uninspired homilies, noisy kids, clicks, or mask mandates.”
This flies in the face of a modern apathy about participation in Mass and parish life. Many, including myself, struggle with parish commitment. If my wife didn’t prevent it, I would slip in the back door, avoid eye contact while evading the ushers, sit alone and leave Mass without having had any interactions.
Sentiments like, “I do not need to go to church to be a good person” fail for the same reasons. Our faith is not just “me and God.”
More than a means to an end, the Church is an end in itself. We are made for communion and avoiding that harms ourselves and the community. As God said, “it is not good… to be alone.”
In Christifideles Laici St. John Paul II profoundly says, “that communion represents both the source and the fruit of [God’s] mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion.”
Because the Trinity is a community, the Trinity is the source of communion, and our communion with God and with His people is the mission of the Trinity.
As Christians, communion also becomes our mission. We both need and are needed by the Church. For we were created out of love, in the image of love, to be loved and to love God and one another.
Recommended reading: Christifideles Laici