Community of Disciples
John Michael Talbot

When we hear the call to follow Jesus as his disciples, we do so as a personal response to Christ. But as soon as we follow him, we discover that a bunch of "other people" have also showed up! The initial response to the call of Christ is most personal and initmate, but the call to keep on going is unquestionably communal. It involves a community of disciples called, "the Church," or "the gathering."

The reality of following Jesus is communal. The first disciples formed a community around Jesus. They were together when he was arrested. They were together when he was resurrected. They were together when the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost. In Acts 2+4 they stayed together as an intentional community, from which evangelized Jerusalem and grew. The only time they were split up was when they lost their courage in the face of the Cross, or were forced to do so through persecution.

Throughout history the human being is a predominantly tribal creature. Most of the great cultures of this world are familial and tribal. In the rising tide of the Far East today, the greatest honor in work is to sacrifice one's more personal desires for the sake of the family business. The Hispanic culture is a family first tradition.

Furthermore, most ancient civilizations were built around the centrality of the temple. Religion is what held them together. Only modern western civilization has adapted a more secular and pagan model.

Accordingly, most classical religion is communal in nature. While there is a realization of the need for solitude of the mystic, there is a de facto awareness of the communal nature of following a master. The Hindu Sannyasin follows a guru in an "ashram," or "community." The Buddhist monastic and lay disciples take refuge, not only in the Buddha and his teaching Dharma, but also in the "Sangha," or "community."

The early Christian monastic tradition is built on a similar pattern. The monks joined a community to follow the instruction of an Abbot, and/or elder monks, who were Christian spiritual masters. Once they joined, they found themselves with many other younger monks who were often far from perfect. Yet, it is right there in that imperfection that the presence of the more perfect teaching of the masters was tested. That is why the monks vowed to stay with a local community for life, and why even Christian hermits live in solitude with the support of a community of other hermits.

This stands in radical contrast to the modern culture of the west. In the west the individual stands in ideological preeminence over the community. We have embraced individualism. We have become the culture of "me," and self, over really sacrificing for the sake of "us." This kills the possibility for any stable social relationship. IT has vast ramifications throughout a culture. To quote John Paul II, we have become a "culture of death."

The Franciscan, John Duns Scotus (1266-1308 AD), taught the venerable notion of "individuation." Individuation rightly recognizes the unique, and unrepeatable gift, of each individual human person. It creates a positive attitude of reverence for human life, and its entire process from beginning to end, and a further appropriate love and respect for all life.

But "individualism" is individuation "gone bad." Individualism places the rights of the individual over anything else. This creates a society of self. This manifests in hedonism, consumerism, economic inequality, and violence. Death is the result, whether through gangs and domestic violence in the streets and homes of our cities, the lost youth in our schools, or with the unborn and elderly in the wards of hospitals and nursing homes. Individualism is the root of it all.

Sadly, it must be admitted that contemporary religion of America has not been able to effectively counter the tide of this self-centered culture of death. The seeker friendly mega churches, ultra conservative, evangelical, and charismatic churches, and even the newly popular Eastern religions, have all come face to face with an individualism and chagrinned at the long term results.

What is the answer? The answer is to simply persevere with the classical forms of religion that take us all past the enslavement to self. Only when the self is let go can any of the problems of individualism be effectively solved. Until then it is all just words and religious curiosity. So we must simply persevere with faith and determination.

Ironically life in community rarely depends on the big ideological issues mentioned above. Most all who come to our community would say that they agree with the above basic description of the problem, and the long-term solution.

A vocation usually depends on the little things of daily life. As we say here at Little Portion Hermitage: whether or not someone makes it usually depends on whether they can grow a green bean for God! It depends on how well they can work with others in the mundane realities of the garden, the kitchen, or the office, just as much, if not more, than if they understand the ideology of our life. As Jesus says, "those who are faithful in little things will be given the great." Community is the place where this is tested, and perfected through daily life with others.

To conclude we could say that community is where the teachings of the master are tested. It is one thing to set in rapt attention as the master teaches spiritual life. It is quite another to live it. The teaching of the master, and the community of the disciples is God's way of balancing these two most important aspects of following the Master in his community of disciples.

This article was part of a 20-week series originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper between July 14 and November 24, 2001