It is a time when their contributions can be recognized and when they are not defined first by their need. All communities have some boundaries, although some are more explicit about them than others. Some communities, as a matter of principle, work with minimal boundaries while others establish a significant number of guidelines. Boundaries can be literal doors and walls, but they can also be rules, policies, or mission statements. They are shaped in relation to space, resources, relationships, roles, commitments, and identity.
Boundaries help define what a community holds precious.
Boundaries are a problem because so many of them are hidden. While we are likely to notice the most obvious ones we are unlikely to notice how even our own occupations, neighborhoods, and churches can, in themselves, create boundaries that shut out most strangers. The modern world is deeply ambivalent about boundaries and community. The wideness of God's mercy and the generosity of God's welcome must frame our thinking about limits and boundaries. Sometimes visible and conscious, very often hidden and semiconscious, these boundaries and the struggles over them need to be discerned and understood if we are to treat seriously the human and divine imperatives to seek reconciliation and act in love.