Fellowship
By: Deo Omnis Gloria
Tags: Friendship, Faith and Life, Religion And Spirituality, Christianity, Catholic

I once attended Mass in a Parish in Nairobi. I was in transit so as is my norm I look for the most convenient church to attend Holy Mass. Before Mass started, the Priest asked us to greet one another. People responded through awkward greetings which pointed to a deeper problem.

Without a doubt, a common theme among fallen-away Catholics who are now happily nestled in bustling Protestant communities is that they felt unwelcome at their parish because there was a lack of fellowship. They enjoy the warmth of Bible study which they claim we lack. Indeed some of our Jumuia’s are perfunctory with few people taking the lead at every meeting. They don’t inspire one to look forward to the next meeting. So what is fellowship and why are we, as Catholics, so notoriously bad at it?

Fellowship, by its very definition, is merely a friendly association and the gathering of like-minded people. How is that so difficult? Yet the very concept brings disdain from some Catholics. In a group chat discussing this issue there was a common theme: We don’t need fellowship; we go to Mass for the Eucharist. One commenter even said, “The difference is that Protestants need people; we don’t need people, we have Jesus.”

Really? Catholics don’t need people? Yes, we do have Jesus in the Eucharist but it’s a fallacy to espouse a spirituality without community. We are the Church, and that in its very essence means we are a people. The concept of fellowship is essential to our journey as Christians; Jesus Christ himself taught us this.

The first generation disciples of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church emphasized fellowship (Acts 2:42): “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

In establishing the Church, Jesus made clear that we aren’t meant to navigate the Christian journey alone. That we need the love and support of like-minded people to help us to stay the course — in the good times and when the waters get rocky. Yes, I do attend Mass to receive Christ in the Eucharist, but that doesn’t mean my experience of Church should be limited to my moment of Communion.

Fellowship allows us to have a group of Catholics as our bedrock. We can count on them and they, in turn, can count on us. We can draw from them honesty, encouragement, support, and every now and then a well-deserved kick in the pants from a wonderful group with shared faith. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ and we are grateful for them. The Church, parishes, and many other organizations offer a number of good options for Catholics seeking friendship and fellowship.

Friendship, brotherhood, sisterhood, fellowship, bonding, accountability, prayer, spiritual growth, service, these are the words which come to mind when I think of how important it is for me to have other Catholics in my life.

The testimony of Christian living means that fellowship and love should be tangibly present from the first contact with everyone we meet. Catholicism is emphatically not a “me and Jesus” form of the Christian faith. The task is not to lead people into some vague state called “being a Christian,” but to invite them to become Catholics.

Pope Paul VI had written that, for Catholics, evangelization is not “an individual and isolated act; it is one that is deeply ecclesial” (Evangelization in the Modern World, 60) and that “the community of believers… is the Church, the visible sacrament of salvation”. For this reason, Christian fellowship is called the foundational means of entering in to the mystery of Christ, and the Church teached that the “initiation of catechumens… takes place within the community of the faithful”. Catholic evangelization is aimed at making someone a member of the Body of Christ and leading him or her to become active, practicing members of a church, so they can be pastored into deep, spiritual, ongoing, communal growth.

Christian fellowship is not solely a question of “How do I do it?” First, it is a question of “Who am I?” and “How do I live my life?” What a person is comes before anything a person does; to be an effective evangelist, a Catholic must himself or herself be transformed in Christ.

When Catholics (in general) work in the community, at say, a health center, a university, a nursing home…their goal is to serve the person. Where they are at. To address the dignity of the person in need. Our primary purpose is not to convert them, to talk to them about Christ or faith sharing. Ours is an apostolate of example, the apostolate of a good, holy life that can be magnified through fellowship. All cannot be preachers, all do not have the duty to admonish or exhort others, not all can attend to apostolic works, but there is no one who cannot contribute to the spiritual good of his neighbor by giving the example of a life which is integrally Christian: holding to the principles one has professed and faithfully fulfilling one’s duties. “Everyone can help his neighbor if he does his duty,” says St. John Chrysostom, and he adds: “There would be no pagans if Christians were real Christians, if they really kept the commandments. A good life sounds clearer and louder than a trumpet.” A good life speaks for itself; it has an authority and exercises an attraction greatly superior to that of words.

Catholic fellowship is therefore one of the great callings on our lives as Christians. It exists to say things that will keep each other believing and true to our calling of holiness.

The importance of fellowship can be summarized through 1 Samuel 23. David’s life is hanging in the balance. The Lord shows him that people from the town of Keilah are going to hand him over to Saul. So, David must flee. Later in the chapter, the Ziphites betray David and tell Saul where he is, and Saul comes after him. He escapes by the skin of his teeth. Imagine the pressure, the stress, the tension, the discouragement. Is it worth it to be God’s anointed? We will definitely ask this in our pursuit of holiness

Between those two events — the betrayal of Keilah and the treachery of the Ziphites — the Bible gives us a glimpse of how David persevered.

“And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God.” (1 Samuel 23:16)

We must be each other’s Jonathan.

Do this for each other. “Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).