Collaboration - Community

We find the depths of our self in interpersonal relationships ~ in the Old Testament, God makes a covenant with "His people" ~ loyalty and fidelity to God is expressed  in reciprocal acceptance and in active participation in the life and destiny of the community (See Deut. 22:1-4).

In the New Testament, Jesus inaugurates a new style of mission and kinship. The community of Jesus, twelve companions (Mk. 3:14) and a group of women (Lk. 8:1-3), does not seem to be a model for collaboration. Often they lack openness, are incapable of perceiving the message and challenges of the Master ~ doubts and personal interest surface... Yet, these are the individuals that make up the Church (and it's still true today). Jesus, despite everything, animates, pardons and encourages, by expressing his trust in us, freeing us from our fears and involving us in the ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom ~ of healing and of forgiving sins (See Lk. 9:1-6, 12-16; 10:1-2; 24: 44-48).

While Jesus accepted the slow pace of the weaker members, he did call them to a change in mentality. He taught them to accept each other without judging, to forgive each other "seventy times seven times" and to assume his own attitude of gratuitous service and collaboration. The community of believers welcomes and makes its own the inheritance it received from Jesus. They are "united heart and soul" and create real communion among themselves through the "breaking of bread", the sharing of their belongings and even suffering persecution together (See 2Cor. 1:7; Heb. 10:33; 1Pt. 4:13) and collaboration for the proclamation of the Gospel (Phil. 1:5).