Community

When you are baptized, it is from that moment on whether you like or not you become a member of his church. Even if you do not officially put your name on the roster and become a member of any church you are still a member of the church and part of the church community. It is our faith in Christ that allows us to be called a child of God. And by default, all who put their faith in Christ are children of God, and all become members of the same family. We can no more be a Christian and have nothing to do with the church, than we can be a person and not be a member of a family. For the church to function in unity it must first become a community.
Psalm 133
1. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Just as this tent pole, when all pieces are present and connected the pole does the job it was intended to do. All the pieces coming together held together by the single cord going through them. If one piece goes away the pole can’t do the job it was intended for, just as we as one body with different members are held together by our faith in God, if one piece leaves, it hampers the whole because we can’t do everything God intended. Each of us have been given a task to do. If one piece leaves it affects the whole. To come together (at Mass, with small groups) we build each other up and strengthen each other, building off of each other’s strengths that God gave each of us. We were intended to be many members of one body united in Christ.
No child of God is an only child. But just like all families, we do not get to pick who we are going to let in to our family. There may be on some occasions, that some of us would’ve liked to have chosen whether our brothers or our sisters are members of our family, or perhaps we have that one weird uncle we wouldn’t want him to be part of our family, but we don’t get to make that choice. The Christian community is just like that we do not get to choose who God calls into his kingdom and like any community of diverse people, our church community is susceptible to the fact that we are not all going to get along at all times. There will be people in our Christian community that are difficult to love even hard to be around at times. The reason for this, just because you become a Christian does not mean no one will ever annoy you. It does not mean that you will suddenly become immune to your emotions and never, envy or become jealous of another person in the church. Becoming a Christian does not mean that we will go through some sort of magical metamorphosis and suddenly become a great conversationalist that has no problem in being engaging with every word that you speak, or you will become a glowing inspiration to everyone that you meet. There is no such thing as a perfect Christian community. There will be community members that will get cranky at times and some of them are going to be annoying and some of them will try our patients and we will try theirs. Through it all, we are to remain united as one community, built upon the foundation of our love for Christ.
In Romans chapter12 verses 4-8 it says
4 For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
I can imagine sitting around a table with Jesus as one of his disciples as he makes this statement “A new commandment I give to you” This idea of a new commandment perks our ears and we all lean in closer so that we do not miss a word. “That you love one another”. Wait this is not new, and we have been struggling to do just that in spite of our differences. Then Jesus brings down the hammer “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” As a community of believers this is the standard we must strive for. We must strive to function together even knowing there will be trouble, and there will be disagreements. We must always be aware that the world is watching, they are judging the love of Christ by how we love and function together as a community of believers. The way we do this is with love, but not an earthly love but a heavenly love. A love that is built upon the common bond we all have through Christ Jesus, a love that supersedes anything found on earth.
1 Peter 3: 8 says:
8 Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
There is nowhere in Scripture where we are told to be alone, act alone, to stay alone from the beginning. We are meant to be in community. In the book of Genesis, God states “It is not good that man should be alone.” God is relational there is a holy communion between the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit and having been made in his image we have an internal desire to be among others, to be relational. Jesus knew this when he surrounded himself with the 12, the roots of the church are based in community, as more and more people were added to the community of believers In the book of acts it says the Lord added to their number, day by day.

We were meant to be together to build each other and strengthen each other. Let’s look at a fire for example. In the fire place the fire is a roaring flame warming all. It is a large flame, but look closer, look at the many pieces of wood working together to make that flame so large. Now take one ember from that fire and set it off by itself. What happens to that ember that is now removed from the others? As time passes that ember slowly fades and dies. Apart from the rest of the pieces of wood and embers that make the fire it can’t sustain itself.
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

As each part of the one body seems to be separate but if you take one part away and its job away then the whole is affected.

Another example would be a brick home. It takes many bricks coming together in order to build the one house. If each brick went off on its own there would not be a house built.

We are meant to come together to build up each other using what God has given each of us. Just as we are together right now, here, learning from each other building our strength, growing from the words God uses through others to help us grow.
“Coming together” means to me helping each other gain Heaven. I meet with my prayer group each week and those at the bible study I go to, and of course coming to Mass. I need this coming together to help keep my spirit stay strong. I can tell when I go without coming together with members of the body of Christ, I find myself weaker. We need each other, building each other to make our walk here on this world easier to get through.
I hope this helps to understand the meaning of community and the need we have of it. Though I’m not saying you can’t make it without us coming together, it definitely makes the chances better.
One thing is for sure though, we’ve got to come together as a community to make the journey better. Because when we come together as a true community and unite with Jesus, all things are possible.