real communities
Time for your daily rant. Ready? Mammals are animals that live in communities, in a natural state of things which we are quite divorced from what with zoos and extinction and all the things that our modern world has down to upset living space of all kinds of creatures. Human beings, in particular are creatures of close contact with others of their species. Or they should be. This doesn't mean contact through electronic means. A real community is people who live near each other and talk to each other and interact and disagree and work together and work through things together and support each other through difficulties and share joy together and sometimes borrow a bit of one another's sugar. It’s true.
Communities of humans should grow things, share things, give hugs when another human is sad and feed them when they are hungry. The should drink coffee together but not in Lent. While they are drinking coffee together, but not in Lent, they should talk about their wonderful offspring and complain about same said difficult offspring and worry about those offspring, and remind each other that God is actually in charge.
They should nurse their babies together and let the offspring of the other all roll and tumble together in play on the floor of the den.
An electronic community may exist, but it can never, never take the place of a real community. Real people with flesh that one can lean on and and be leaned upon by others. Real communities are the only ones that can bear the real crises and the real crosses together. One can express empathy in text, but it is not a hamper of food. One can congratulate another on the birth of their new baby, but they cannot take the others out to the park.
Electronic communities can pray for one another, and that is good and expands the Church Militant's capacity to work together as the Body of Christ. We must use this resource for Him. It cannot, however, pick up and elderly parishioner to take them to Mass. It cannot welcome the new family to the parish. It cannot have new families, old friends, heretics and sinners over to dinner. It is not corporal. It lacks the flesh.
I find that all the talk of Theology of the Body revolves primarily around sexual intimacy. We overlook the purpose of the body as the tank that we are given to give in. Give life, give love, give acts of service, give our talents in whatever form they should take so long as all glory is given to God through that talent. Singing, making spaghetti, giving of ourselves in physical union, buying groceries, putting on bandaids, working the soil, painting, working at the soup kitchen, digging ditches so your children have home, holding someones hand while they die...this is all the Theology of the Body.
We must use the tank, the container, for all the good God intended it to do. Give until it hurts.
And then give a little more. To whom much is given, much will be required. Luke 12:48
