Communion Living for that which is larger than ourselves

Chapter six: Communion – living for that which is larger than ourselves
Acts 2:1-13

One of the invitations of love is to live for something larger than ourselves. As a minister of the gospel, I suggest living for and in response to ‘God who is Love’. I sense that there is a deep longing within the human heart for unity. We long to be at peace with God, within ourselves, with others and indeed with all of creation.

This longing for unity can be seen in our desperate efforts at finding some way in which we can truly be satisfied in this life. At times we believe that it will be found in more activity, more success and more material goods. The reality is that it is to be found in a deeper sense of communion with God and all of creation.

How are we to move toward this deeper sense of connectedness and communion? The value of listening to our hearts is a vital way forward and yet we need to admit that we do not do this work in isolation from others. If we believe that marriage will shelter us from all the ills of the world, then we are surely going to be disappointed.

The simple truth is that marriage should be opening us up to more of life and reality. We thus listen to our hearts in the context of community, which plays itself out on many levels:
i) Our own lives.
ii) The lives of those closest to us.
iii) The lives of those further and further afield.

A wonderful description of life in the early church gives us an indication that this dream of a loving community can be fulfilled in certain measure. As we read portions of Acts chapter, we are given indications of how we might listen to our hearts in the longing for greater communion. Next week I will offer three of those indications:

ourselves