“God calls us to live in community and entrusts us with brothers to love” (C. 50): community life, then, is, “for us Salesians a fundamental requirement and a sure way of fulfilling our vocation” (C. 49). With two lectio offerings G. Zevini invites us to turn our Salesian life into a prayer thus gratefully recognising it as a gift of God and giving witness to it as “prophecy in action” (VC 85), since “all of religious life’s fruitfulness depends on the quality of fraternal life in common”.
Analysis of two out of the three summaries relating to the life of the Jerusalem community is, logically, the first text to be prayed. Luke wanted to tell us that as the disciples, who shortly beforehand had betrayed their Lord, began to live together they could now ‘touch’ the power – the Spirit – who had raised Jesus from the dead. Fraternal life woven out of attention to the needs of others and detached from material goods, is tangible proof of a new life and is especially effective as a proclamation of the Risen Lord.
The Spirit lies at the source of common life and its diversity. Paul had to explain to the Christians at Corinth that in their community, unity of life and manifold gifts come from a unique source, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. The abundance of charisms and ministries were at the service of unity of faith and worship. Paul provides norms so that these gifts of the Spirit may be experienced in common, but he does not wonder that difficulties arise precisely because of these gifts. Having to take community crises into account could open our eyes to the presence of the Spirit in the community!
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