THE UPPER ROOM
Community Life
for Religious
by Andrew Costello, C.SS.R.
for Religious
by Andrew Costello, C.SS.R.
Sister's Today Magazine
c. 1978?
It is not good for Adam to be alone ... nor Eve for that matter (Genesis 2: 18).
Most people get married. Some people become religious. Then both spend their lives hoping that the other(s) will take the aloneness away.
We hope that our homes will be homes. We hope our communities will be communities. We join a community because we are impressed by another who seems happy in that community. We leave home, mom and dad, brothers and sisters, hoping we have found a new home. We give up husband or wife, hoping we have found a family.
Then we begin the search. Then we begin our work. Then we come home every day to people who have the same address as us. Sometimes we become friends with a few of the people in the house. Often we spend our lives hoping that the next assignment will put us in a place, a house, a community, that is our dream house, a house of prayer, a house of affirmation.
Days come and days go when we get fed up with all these strangers we're living with -- dying with. The place is a motel for those with cars; it's a hotel for the others. It's a rooming house where people receive phone calls and mail from significant others at other addresses.
Is that too harsh a picture? Am I a pessimist and only seeing the mud and missing the stars? Maybe, but that's the picture that others have reported to me in the past 18 years in religious life.
But the times they are a-changing. Slowly, we too are getting back to our Roots. We are slowly letting the vision of that first Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles influence our lives.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. A reverent fear overtook them all, for many wonders and signs were performed by the apostles. Those who believed shared all things in common; they would sell their property and goods, dividing everything on the basis of each one's need. They went to the temple area together every day, while in their homes they broke bread. With exultant and sincere hearts they took their meals in common, praising God and winning the approval of all the people. Day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2: 42 - 47)
Looking back into the history of the Church we see that whenever she gets stagnant and stiff she cleans house. The Church is like an old woman who fills her end tables with wedding pictures, shells from Miami Beach, post cards, Christmas cards, and a thousand and one other souvenirs from the journey of life. Every once and a while we need a spring cleaning and start all over again. We need room for new souvenirs.
Whenever the Church does this she catches the Fire and new communities are born. The Spirit moves over the waters and new creations occur. And “God saw how good it was” (Genesis 1: 10). Broken men and women break away from their homes and break bread together in new families in the Church: Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Passionists, Redemptorists, Maryknoll, and so many other families in both the Protestant and Catholic traditions.
ROOTS
In the Acts of the Apostles we find mention of an upper room (Acts 1: 13). There we see the Apostles and Mary praying. Was this the same place where they had the Last Supper? Was this the room where the Risen Christ entered even though the doors were locked? Was this the place where they voted in Matthias? Was this the place where the ancient church of Sancta Sion stood -- the mother of all churches?
We can't say “yes” to the above questions. We only can say that some traditions hold that they are one and the same place. Yet, there are other theories and traditions, just as there are theories that the house belonged to either Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, or the mother of John Mark. Moreover, we know that the people of the early Church met in many homes (Cf. Acts 2: 46).
But to be poetic, to be reflective, to be inspirational, and also to be practical, let's make it all one and the same place. Let's make the upper room a symbol of that place, that center, that vision that we all need for understanding community. We all need a utopia, a mandala, that contains all the ingredients, all the necessary ideas we need to meditate upon, so that we'll have the energy to build better communities, better homes. Who wants to live alone? Who wants to die alone? Let us rise together and take the stairs to the upper room.
1) A PLACE TO EAT
The upper room was first of all a place to eat. Jesus told Peter and John to go into the city and follow the man carrying the water jar. He would lead them to the upstairs room where they would eat the Passover Meal (Luke 22: 7-13).
We all need a place to eat. It's no fun eating alone. Our lives center around food -- around the dinner table.
When we eat together, we meet together. We begin to share our thoughts, our feelings, our day. Some of the best conversations in our lives have taken place at breakfast over coffee or at supper over stew, or late at night over a drink and potato chips.
Unconsciously we know/feel the deep interconnection between eating and talking. We are oral people. We do both with our mouths. We can even talk with our mouths full. We know the connection between eating and getting along with each other. If we can't stand, can't stomach another, we watch to see where they sit, and we sit as far away as possible. When we are upset with another or even with ourselves we find it hard to eat. We skip supper and stay in our room. We don't go to communion.
We can gauge the condition of a family or a community by how often on and how they eat together. Teenagers begin skipping meals as they begin to break off on their own. A person who leaves religious life on June 30th, often began leaving the supper table back in January. Community means communion.
Who cooks, who does dishes, who buys the food, when do we have a big meal, when do we eat out, are all crucial, basic issues in our lives together. We celebrate anniversaries, feast days, every day, with food.
We can look to the Gospels for the best words written about community life -- especially those in John 13 - 17. They were words shared at a dinner table. If a religious “community” is simply a table of strangers, they will talk about the weather or life out there. But if they are friends they will begin talking the words we find in the Gospel of John: service, unity, love, forgiveness, work, truth, friendship, courage, the Father, the Spirit. It's all summed up in Jesus' formula for community: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
Gradually our Mass is moving in this direction as the Church realizes we need to get to know each other, trust each other, and hopefully love one another. Slowly, the Mass is looking more and more like a meal. Slowly, we are realizing the need to have coffee and buns after Mass downstairs. Slowly, we're getting back to the old idea of realizing the importance of parish suppers. They are all interconnected parts of the parish Mass.
Eating is the most basic need of people. Abraham Maslow puts it at the base of his scale of human needs. It's where we must begin. What better way of taking care of this than to do what Jesus did: to find a guest room to eat with each other (Luke 22:11).
2) A PLACE OF FEAR
The upper room was also a place of fear. The apostles were scared that week-end behind closed doors. Their Teacher was assassinated. That week-end was an agony -- not in a garden -- but behind locked doors.
All of us have experienced fears, terrors, shadows, loneliness. We're scared to be alone. We have anger about others (pastors, teachers, family). We have anxiety about the unknowns in our lives. We have sexual feelings that bother us. We can't sleep at times because it's getting too much. We feel like we're in a room -- all alone -- and it's locked. We need to come out and talk to others. We need people to hear us out. We need people with ears.
For years we were told to grin and bear it. For years then we thought we were the only ones who had these weird feelings.
Today community life is becoming more open, more trustful, more transparent, more thoughtful. What about the disciples? Did they trust each other enough to say what was on their minds? Were they like the disciples on the road to Emmaus who said bluntly, “We were hoping that he was the one who would set Israel free” (Luke 24: 21). Did Mary tell John about the sword piercing her hear -- “so the thoughts of many hears may be lay bare” (Luke 2:35).
Jesus often asked people about what they were harboring in their head, in their heart, in their inner room. In that upper room Jesus burst in even though the doors were locked and said, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19)
If we go to the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and pour out our inner passion we often experience the compassion of Jesus. We experience His peace. But if we go to the Body of Christ -- the community -- and say to an ear, “I need you,” will you say, “I do not need you” (1 Corinthians 12: 21). If we are community to each other, then we'll find brothers and sisters who will let us place our fears, our hopes, our plans, our thoughts about who Jesus is, and lots of other “stuff” out on the table.
And so to build a community we begin to eat with each other, we begin to eat each other, we begin to trust each other. That's where we start. Soon we begin to see friends around that table whom we can turn to in our moments of fear. We soon realize that the Body of Christ is here. We soon experience the peace of the Risen Christ as the Early Church experienced Him.
3) A PLACE OF PRAYER
The upper room was a place of prayer. The brothers with Mary and some women “devoted themselves to constant prayer” (Acts 1: 14)
What were their prayers like? Were they out loud? Did Mary pray out loud? What was she really like? Was she in the center or at the edge of the room? Was Peter brooding and hurt over his three denials of Christ the Friday before?
Questions, questions, questions .... Did these broken people break bread in memory of Jesus? Questions, questions, questions .... In our communities how often do we pray together, break words together, really pray together, knowing that Christ is in our midst? (Cf. Matthew 18:20.)
If we look to the life of Jesus we see the double tradition of prayer that we find in all the great religions, i.e., being alone and in a group.
There is the need for that special room we hear about in the sermon on the mount. “Whenever you pray, go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private” (Matthew 6: 6). To Christ it was the mountain or the desert. To Gotama, the Buddha, it was the forest. To many of us, it was those long moments alone in novitiate chapels or rooms or grounds. Today to many of us moving through mid-life crises, it's a thirty day directed retreat. But we all have that inner need for introversion -- to be still -- to be alone -- and to know that I am your God. (Cf. Psalm 46:11.)
But there is also that need for extroversion. We have a need to pray with others. Whenever the Church goes back to its roots, it comes up with this idea of shared prayer. We find it in the Acts of the Apostles and with Jesus in the upper room at the Last Supper in His great prayer for unity ( John 17: 9-19). We see Him inviting His disciples to pray with Him in the garden (Mark 14: 32 - 41).
Back in 1729 when John Wesley and his brother Charles saw the Church of their day getting too “stiff” and “formal”, they formed a small prayer group alone with Selina Hastings, George Whitefield and a few others. Their fellow students at Oxford made fun of them and called them the “Holy Club”. But they were simply doing what most reform movements in the history of the Church did. Two or three would gather together in His name and pray for directions. They began meeting for prayer in an “upper room” and then would go out and visit the prisons and help the poor. Their method (Methodists) of starting small groups spread throughout the working class and the poor of England and then to the men and women on the American frontier. John Wesley simply said he wanted to live “according to the method laid down in the Bible.”
If we eat together in community we better end up praying together in community. We share prayer not to show off, but to share our common faith, and our common need for the Lord, in good times and in bad, full of fears and full of joys. The early Christian community is a model. They gathered to take meals in common and to praise God (Acts 2: 46 - 47). After Peter and John were released from the Sanhedrin they went back to the community to tell what happened and to praise god. In fact, “the place where they gathered shook as they prayed” (Acts 4:31).
In our better moments we religious see the need to improve our prayer life. If we get back to our roots we see Mary and the early Church as a model of both private inner prayer and shared prayer. In the early scenes of Luke's Gospel we find Mary in prayer -- deep inner prayer -- turning things over in her heart (Luke 2:19). But we also see her in the upper room sharing prayer with the community (Acts 1:14). In Acts we see Peter going up on the room terrace for some private prayer (Acts 10:9) and also praying with the group (Acts 4:24, 31).
4) A PLACE OF DECISION MAKING
The early Church had to make some big decisions. They had to elect someone to take the place of Judas. Should we have deacons? What do we do with all the money people keep giving us? How do we deal with the Sanhedrin? What about Saul? What about the Gentiles?
They were pioneers in a new Way. In our day we are entering into a new era for religious life. We are slowly moving from a pyramid shaped community to a circular shaped community. Both have been traditional symbols of God: the triangle and the circle.
The pope was on the top layer of that pyramid called the Church. Provincials, bishops, mother superiors, and a host of other people in similar power structures sent their orders down to lower levels of the pyramid and that was that.
People in the Church often think that the changes in the Church came with Pope John the Twenty Third or the Vatican Council II. However, books like The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, show us that the overt changes that are in the Church and the world today began centuries ago. They slowly rise to the surface. He points out that there is obviously a crisis when people begin to see the visible signs that a paradigm is being switched. He points out that people change at different speeds and some don't change at all. In other words, people didn't get angry at the pyramid switching to the circle, but they got mad when communion rails started to be taken out and altars faced people.
To me it looks like we are coming to the end of that particular crisis right now. We are rebuilding the Church with everyone having a piece of the pie. This includes the Pope, bishops, superiors, the laity, and all the people around the circle. Hopefully, the circle will move better than the pyramid. We have seen dramatic change from the Church as an “already there” to a “not yet”. We have changed from seeing the Church as a “being” to a “becoming”. The Church of 1563 is different from the Church of 1965 and 325. The Church is people and people are evolving towards the Father in Christ. These words are cliches and to some they might sound nice, but the implications behind them must be spoken of in community. They are dynamite because of their implications in specific situations.
For example, some people in community, think that the changes in the Church will come to a stand still one of these days and we'll be all set like cement once again. We'll have our new pyramid that will last for a thousand years. Then there are others who want to keep moving, keeping rolling ahead, keep evolving, revolving, spinning forwards. Both have to learn to live in community: the high changers and the low changers. They have to talk about it.
People make jokes about all this dialogue. They are sick of meetings. They are sick of discussions. My impressions are that when real dialogue takes place people rejoice because they finally are listened to and heard after all these years. My impression is that people are against monologue disguised as dialogue. People are sick of meetings for the sake of meetings. They are sick of poorly prepared agendas and poorly thought out proposals. They are against manipulation and hidden agendas where they really are not being asked their opinion and vote. People are against meetings where there is a no win situation and compromise and consensus are impossible.
In the Acts of the Apostles we see a newly formed group struggling with the question of tradition versus innovation. We see a healthy and human struggle in Peter dealing with the Gentile question. It seems that issues were out in the open. Letters and delegates had to go back and forth for meetings (Acts 15:30). We see that open disagreements are normal and are listed in the minutes of the meetings of the early Church (Acts 15:19).
If our communities want to improve the quality of their life we all have to sit down and openly let each other know who we are and where we stand. We must learn to admit that we really don't know what we want at times. We are weak. We don't know it all. We have doubts. We have different priorities. We must openly admit that we like change or don't like change. We have to help people who never speak out to speak out, or at least have lots of coffee breaks to find out that way. We must learn to confront each other in charity (Ephesians 4:15, 25). We must learn to be understanding of those in community who long for the good old days, or for those on welfare in our houses, or who have psychological problems.
In other words we must as a community take the time out to go to an upper room and decide who we are and what we want to be for each other.
5) A PLACE OF THE SPIRIT
Lastly, the upper room is the place where the early Church received the Spirit.
When the day of Pentecost came it found them gathered in one place. Suddenly from up in the sky there came a noise like a strong, driving wind which was heard all through the house where they were seated. Tongues as of fire appeared, which parted and came to rest on each one. All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them (Acts 2:1-4).
If a community eats, talks, prays, cares and listens to each other then that community will have spirit. If they don't, then we're back to the hotel of strangers.
We use that word “spirit” in everyday language. We talk about “team spirit” or “school spirit”. It's also used in negative ways. “The spirit in this house is crummy!” Spirit meals “life”, “mood”, “atmosphere”. It usually refers to how people work or don't work or interact with each other.
The Spirit of God is also hard to define or pin down. It's like the wind (RUAH). We see only its effects. We find it easier to picture God the Father, because we all know what a dad is. We have images of Jesus from all the crucifixes and pictures around our houses. But how do we picture the Spirit?
The Bible speaks of the Spirit as wind, fire, breath or the dove. People who have spirit are lit up. We say, “Who lit the fire under you?” A team with spirit is “hot”. A team with individuals not working together is cold or cool. Love is “hot stuff”. A team with spirit moves “like the wind” or is “flying high” like a bird.
These are only impressions of the Spirit. However, the way we know the Spirit is in its effects, just as we know it's windy when we see the trees moving. If we see people moving, creating, loving, caring, we say to ourselves that they have spirit. We see the people we live with. We know when they are hot and cold. We know when their spirit is up or down.
Is this “spirit” within us the Holy Spirit? The answer is “yes” and “no”. The answer is found in one of the most important statements in the Bible.
"The wind blows where it will.
Most people get married. Some people become religious. Then both spend their lives hoping that the other(s) will take the aloneness away.
We hope that our homes will be homes. We hope our communities will be communities. We join a community because we are impressed by another who seems happy in that community. We leave home, mom and dad, brothers and sisters, hoping we have found a new home. We give up husband or wife, hoping we have found a family.
Then we begin the search. Then we begin our work. Then we come home every day to people who have the same address as us. Sometimes we become friends with a few of the people in the house. Often we spend our lives hoping that the next assignment will put us in a place, a house, a community, that is our dream house, a house of prayer, a house of affirmation.
Days come and days go when we get fed up with all these strangers we're living with -- dying with. The place is a motel for those with cars; it's a hotel for the others. It's a rooming house where people receive phone calls and mail from significant others at other addresses.
Is that too harsh a picture? Am I a pessimist and only seeing the mud and missing the stars? Maybe, but that's the picture that others have reported to me in the past 18 years in religious life.
But the times they are a-changing. Slowly, we too are getting back to our Roots. We are slowly letting the vision of that first Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles influence our lives.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. A reverent fear overtook them all, for many wonders and signs were performed by the apostles. Those who believed shared all things in common; they would sell their property and goods, dividing everything on the basis of each one's need. They went to the temple area together every day, while in their homes they broke bread. With exultant and sincere hearts they took their meals in common, praising God and winning the approval of all the people. Day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2: 42 - 47)
Looking back into the history of the Church we see that whenever she gets stagnant and stiff she cleans house. The Church is like an old woman who fills her end tables with wedding pictures, shells from Miami Beach, post cards, Christmas cards, and a thousand and one other souvenirs from the journey of life. Every once and a while we need a spring cleaning and start all over again. We need room for new souvenirs.
Whenever the Church does this she catches the Fire and new communities are born. The Spirit moves over the waters and new creations occur. And “God saw how good it was” (Genesis 1: 10). Broken men and women break away from their homes and break bread together in new families in the Church: Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Passionists, Redemptorists, Maryknoll, and so many other families in both the Protestant and Catholic traditions.
ROOTS
In the Acts of the Apostles we find mention of an upper room (Acts 1: 13). There we see the Apostles and Mary praying. Was this the same place where they had the Last Supper? Was this the room where the Risen Christ entered even though the doors were locked? Was this the place where they voted in Matthias? Was this the place where the ancient church of Sancta Sion stood -- the mother of all churches?
We can't say “yes” to the above questions. We only can say that some traditions hold that they are one and the same place. Yet, there are other theories and traditions, just as there are theories that the house belonged to either Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, or the mother of John Mark. Moreover, we know that the people of the early Church met in many homes (Cf. Acts 2: 46).
But to be poetic, to be reflective, to be inspirational, and also to be practical, let's make it all one and the same place. Let's make the upper room a symbol of that place, that center, that vision that we all need for understanding community. We all need a utopia, a mandala, that contains all the ingredients, all the necessary ideas we need to meditate upon, so that we'll have the energy to build better communities, better homes. Who wants to live alone? Who wants to die alone? Let us rise together and take the stairs to the upper room.
1) A PLACE TO EAT
The upper room was first of all a place to eat. Jesus told Peter and John to go into the city and follow the man carrying the water jar. He would lead them to the upstairs room where they would eat the Passover Meal (Luke 22: 7-13).
We all need a place to eat. It's no fun eating alone. Our lives center around food -- around the dinner table.
When we eat together, we meet together. We begin to share our thoughts, our feelings, our day. Some of the best conversations in our lives have taken place at breakfast over coffee or at supper over stew, or late at night over a drink and potato chips.
Unconsciously we know/feel the deep interconnection between eating and talking. We are oral people. We do both with our mouths. We can even talk with our mouths full. We know the connection between eating and getting along with each other. If we can't stand, can't stomach another, we watch to see where they sit, and we sit as far away as possible. When we are upset with another or even with ourselves we find it hard to eat. We skip supper and stay in our room. We don't go to communion.
We can gauge the condition of a family or a community by how often on and how they eat together. Teenagers begin skipping meals as they begin to break off on their own. A person who leaves religious life on June 30th, often began leaving the supper table back in January. Community means communion.
Who cooks, who does dishes, who buys the food, when do we have a big meal, when do we eat out, are all crucial, basic issues in our lives together. We celebrate anniversaries, feast days, every day, with food.
We can look to the Gospels for the best words written about community life -- especially those in John 13 - 17. They were words shared at a dinner table. If a religious “community” is simply a table of strangers, they will talk about the weather or life out there. But if they are friends they will begin talking the words we find in the Gospel of John: service, unity, love, forgiveness, work, truth, friendship, courage, the Father, the Spirit. It's all summed up in Jesus' formula for community: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
Gradually our Mass is moving in this direction as the Church realizes we need to get to know each other, trust each other, and hopefully love one another. Slowly, the Mass is looking more and more like a meal. Slowly, we are realizing the need to have coffee and buns after Mass downstairs. Slowly, we're getting back to the old idea of realizing the importance of parish suppers. They are all interconnected parts of the parish Mass.
Eating is the most basic need of people. Abraham Maslow puts it at the base of his scale of human needs. It's where we must begin. What better way of taking care of this than to do what Jesus did: to find a guest room to eat with each other (Luke 22:11).
2) A PLACE OF FEAR
The upper room was also a place of fear. The apostles were scared that week-end behind closed doors. Their Teacher was assassinated. That week-end was an agony -- not in a garden -- but behind locked doors.
All of us have experienced fears, terrors, shadows, loneliness. We're scared to be alone. We have anger about others (pastors, teachers, family). We have anxiety about the unknowns in our lives. We have sexual feelings that bother us. We can't sleep at times because it's getting too much. We feel like we're in a room -- all alone -- and it's locked. We need to come out and talk to others. We need people to hear us out. We need people with ears.
For years we were told to grin and bear it. For years then we thought we were the only ones who had these weird feelings.
Today community life is becoming more open, more trustful, more transparent, more thoughtful. What about the disciples? Did they trust each other enough to say what was on their minds? Were they like the disciples on the road to Emmaus who said bluntly, “We were hoping that he was the one who would set Israel free” (Luke 24: 21). Did Mary tell John about the sword piercing her hear -- “so the thoughts of many hears may be lay bare” (Luke 2:35).
Jesus often asked people about what they were harboring in their head, in their heart, in their inner room. In that upper room Jesus burst in even though the doors were locked and said, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19)
If we go to the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and pour out our inner passion we often experience the compassion of Jesus. We experience His peace. But if we go to the Body of Christ -- the community -- and say to an ear, “I need you,” will you say, “I do not need you” (1 Corinthians 12: 21). If we are community to each other, then we'll find brothers and sisters who will let us place our fears, our hopes, our plans, our thoughts about who Jesus is, and lots of other “stuff” out on the table.
And so to build a community we begin to eat with each other, we begin to eat each other, we begin to trust each other. That's where we start. Soon we begin to see friends around that table whom we can turn to in our moments of fear. We soon realize that the Body of Christ is here. We soon experience the peace of the Risen Christ as the Early Church experienced Him.
3) A PLACE OF PRAYER
The upper room was a place of prayer. The brothers with Mary and some women “devoted themselves to constant prayer” (Acts 1: 14)
What were their prayers like? Were they out loud? Did Mary pray out loud? What was she really like? Was she in the center or at the edge of the room? Was Peter brooding and hurt over his three denials of Christ the Friday before?
Questions, questions, questions .... Did these broken people break bread in memory of Jesus? Questions, questions, questions .... In our communities how often do we pray together, break words together, really pray together, knowing that Christ is in our midst? (Cf. Matthew 18:20.)
If we look to the life of Jesus we see the double tradition of prayer that we find in all the great religions, i.e., being alone and in a group.
There is the need for that special room we hear about in the sermon on the mount. “Whenever you pray, go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private” (Matthew 6: 6). To Christ it was the mountain or the desert. To Gotama, the Buddha, it was the forest. To many of us, it was those long moments alone in novitiate chapels or rooms or grounds. Today to many of us moving through mid-life crises, it's a thirty day directed retreat. But we all have that inner need for introversion -- to be still -- to be alone -- and to know that I am your God. (Cf. Psalm 46:11.)
But there is also that need for extroversion. We have a need to pray with others. Whenever the Church goes back to its roots, it comes up with this idea of shared prayer. We find it in the Acts of the Apostles and with Jesus in the upper room at the Last Supper in His great prayer for unity ( John 17: 9-19). We see Him inviting His disciples to pray with Him in the garden (Mark 14: 32 - 41).
Back in 1729 when John Wesley and his brother Charles saw the Church of their day getting too “stiff” and “formal”, they formed a small prayer group alone with Selina Hastings, George Whitefield and a few others. Their fellow students at Oxford made fun of them and called them the “Holy Club”. But they were simply doing what most reform movements in the history of the Church did. Two or three would gather together in His name and pray for directions. They began meeting for prayer in an “upper room” and then would go out and visit the prisons and help the poor. Their method (Methodists) of starting small groups spread throughout the working class and the poor of England and then to the men and women on the American frontier. John Wesley simply said he wanted to live “according to the method laid down in the Bible.”
If we eat together in community we better end up praying together in community. We share prayer not to show off, but to share our common faith, and our common need for the Lord, in good times and in bad, full of fears and full of joys. The early Christian community is a model. They gathered to take meals in common and to praise God (Acts 2: 46 - 47). After Peter and John were released from the Sanhedrin they went back to the community to tell what happened and to praise god. In fact, “the place where they gathered shook as they prayed” (Acts 4:31).
In our better moments we religious see the need to improve our prayer life. If we get back to our roots we see Mary and the early Church as a model of both private inner prayer and shared prayer. In the early scenes of Luke's Gospel we find Mary in prayer -- deep inner prayer -- turning things over in her heart (Luke 2:19). But we also see her in the upper room sharing prayer with the community (Acts 1:14). In Acts we see Peter going up on the room terrace for some private prayer (Acts 10:9) and also praying with the group (Acts 4:24, 31).
4) A PLACE OF DECISION MAKING
The early Church had to make some big decisions. They had to elect someone to take the place of Judas. Should we have deacons? What do we do with all the money people keep giving us? How do we deal with the Sanhedrin? What about Saul? What about the Gentiles?
They were pioneers in a new Way. In our day we are entering into a new era for religious life. We are slowly moving from a pyramid shaped community to a circular shaped community. Both have been traditional symbols of God: the triangle and the circle.
The pope was on the top layer of that pyramid called the Church. Provincials, bishops, mother superiors, and a host of other people in similar power structures sent their orders down to lower levels of the pyramid and that was that.
People in the Church often think that the changes in the Church came with Pope John the Twenty Third or the Vatican Council II. However, books like The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, show us that the overt changes that are in the Church and the world today began centuries ago. They slowly rise to the surface. He points out that there is obviously a crisis when people begin to see the visible signs that a paradigm is being switched. He points out that people change at different speeds and some don't change at all. In other words, people didn't get angry at the pyramid switching to the circle, but they got mad when communion rails started to be taken out and altars faced people.
To me it looks like we are coming to the end of that particular crisis right now. We are rebuilding the Church with everyone having a piece of the pie. This includes the Pope, bishops, superiors, the laity, and all the people around the circle. Hopefully, the circle will move better than the pyramid. We have seen dramatic change from the Church as an “already there” to a “not yet”. We have changed from seeing the Church as a “being” to a “becoming”. The Church of 1563 is different from the Church of 1965 and 325. The Church is people and people are evolving towards the Father in Christ. These words are cliches and to some they might sound nice, but the implications behind them must be spoken of in community. They are dynamite because of their implications in specific situations.
For example, some people in community, think that the changes in the Church will come to a stand still one of these days and we'll be all set like cement once again. We'll have our new pyramid that will last for a thousand years. Then there are others who want to keep moving, keeping rolling ahead, keep evolving, revolving, spinning forwards. Both have to learn to live in community: the high changers and the low changers. They have to talk about it.
People make jokes about all this dialogue. They are sick of meetings. They are sick of discussions. My impressions are that when real dialogue takes place people rejoice because they finally are listened to and heard after all these years. My impression is that people are against monologue disguised as dialogue. People are sick of meetings for the sake of meetings. They are sick of poorly prepared agendas and poorly thought out proposals. They are against manipulation and hidden agendas where they really are not being asked their opinion and vote. People are against meetings where there is a no win situation and compromise and consensus are impossible.
In the Acts of the Apostles we see a newly formed group struggling with the question of tradition versus innovation. We see a healthy and human struggle in Peter dealing with the Gentile question. It seems that issues were out in the open. Letters and delegates had to go back and forth for meetings (Acts 15:30). We see that open disagreements are normal and are listed in the minutes of the meetings of the early Church (Acts 15:19).
If our communities want to improve the quality of their life we all have to sit down and openly let each other know who we are and where we stand. We must learn to admit that we really don't know what we want at times. We are weak. We don't know it all. We have doubts. We have different priorities. We must openly admit that we like change or don't like change. We have to help people who never speak out to speak out, or at least have lots of coffee breaks to find out that way. We must learn to confront each other in charity (Ephesians 4:15, 25). We must learn to be understanding of those in community who long for the good old days, or for those on welfare in our houses, or who have psychological problems.
In other words we must as a community take the time out to go to an upper room and decide who we are and what we want to be for each other.
5) A PLACE OF THE SPIRIT
Lastly, the upper room is the place where the early Church received the Spirit.
When the day of Pentecost came it found them gathered in one place. Suddenly from up in the sky there came a noise like a strong, driving wind which was heard all through the house where they were seated. Tongues as of fire appeared, which parted and came to rest on each one. All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them (Acts 2:1-4).
If a community eats, talks, prays, cares and listens to each other then that community will have spirit. If they don't, then we're back to the hotel of strangers.
We use that word “spirit” in everyday language. We talk about “team spirit” or “school spirit”. It's also used in negative ways. “The spirit in this house is crummy!” Spirit meals “life”, “mood”, “atmosphere”. It usually refers to how people work or don't work or interact with each other.
The Spirit of God is also hard to define or pin down. It's like the wind (RUAH). We see only its effects. We find it easier to picture God the Father, because we all know what a dad is. We have images of Jesus from all the crucifixes and pictures around our houses. But how do we picture the Spirit?
The Bible speaks of the Spirit as wind, fire, breath or the dove. People who have spirit are lit up. We say, “Who lit the fire under you?” A team with spirit is “hot”. A team with individuals not working together is cold or cool. Love is “hot stuff”. A team with spirit moves “like the wind” or is “flying high” like a bird.
These are only impressions of the Spirit. However, the way we know the Spirit is in its effects, just as we know it's windy when we see the trees moving. If we see people moving, creating, loving, caring, we say to ourselves that they have spirit. We see the people we live with. We know when they are hot and cold. We know when their spirit is up or down.
Is this “spirit” within us the Holy Spirit? The answer is “yes” and “no”. The answer is found in one of the most important statements in the Bible.
"The wind blows where it will.
You hear the sound it makes
but you don't know where it comes from,
or where it goes.
So it is with everyone begotten of the Spirit" (John 3:8).
This text says that we can't pin God down. This text means that we cannot control God's presence or make God happen. A person's spirit can marry the Holy Spirit and the two can become one spirit. John once tried to control the spirit and power of Jesus, and went to Jesus and complained,
“Master, we saw a man using your name to expel demons, and we tried to stop him because he is not of our company.” Jesus told him in reply, “Do not stop him, for any man who is not against you is on your side” (Luke 9:49).
In our communities we have all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts. Often people have had to hide their lights under bushel baskets and bury their talents in the field. It's much easier to keep control of things when everyone must conform. When the windows are closed everything sits comfortably on one's desk. But open the windows and things might start blowing around.
“The Spirit is moving all over this land.” The wind blows where it wills. Jokes were made about the windows of the Vatican that John the Twenty Third opened up. The fresh air is giving us parishes where the talents of more than the priests are being called forth.
In the religious communities we have mixed reactions to all this as people are learning more and more how to breathe the new air. Situations are much harder to control when people can express their gifts much more openly. Members complain that so and so is never home. Obviously, the problem is not the new air in the Church. The problem is the home and the people in it. If people look to the symbol of the upper room as a model for the need to eat together, talk to each other, express their fears and complaints together, and then decide together, then the community should not get in the way of the Spirit of God.
We need communities then where people will be at home with God and neighbor. An example that impresses me deeply is the fellowship in Charismatic meetings. There people pray in varieties of ways and it doesn't seem to bother the people around them. I've noticed that at every meeting there are usually a few “odd characters” -- sometimes unbalanced. Yet there is a deep bond of charity and unity present. I'm not impressed by the gift of tongues. Like Paul, I'm not that crazy about its use (1 Corinthians 14: 2, 5). But I am impressed by some of the other gifts -- especially love. I am impressed by the fruits of the Spirit that I've seen in the Charismatic Renewal: “joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Galatians 5: 22-23)
If there is any one word other than love that weaves its way through the pages of both the Old and the New Testaments it's that word “spirit”. In the Book of Ezekiel we have that powerful vision of the field of dead bones. Ezekiel stood there in that valley surrounded by skeletons and heard the Lord say,
Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came and stood upright, a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: O My People, I will openyour graves and have you rise from them, and bring them back to the land of Israel (Ezekiel 37: 9 - 12)
The Son of Man came. He rose from the dead. He promised the Spirit. The New Israel, a new hope, began in the upper room. They rose from their chairs and brought the good news of Jesus into the whole world.
CONCLUSION
These ideas hopefully will help Christians pull together the reality of what a community, especially a religious community, is. This is one person's vision. By putting it in writing it helped me attempt to clarify what I'm beginning to understand. Hopefully, many more people will express their's and together we'll build the house of God, upper room and all. Thank you for listening.
This text says that we can't pin God down. This text means that we cannot control God's presence or make God happen. A person's spirit can marry the Holy Spirit and the two can become one spirit. John once tried to control the spirit and power of Jesus, and went to Jesus and complained,
“Master, we saw a man using your name to expel demons, and we tried to stop him because he is not of our company.” Jesus told him in reply, “Do not stop him, for any man who is not against you is on your side” (Luke 9:49).
In our communities we have all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts. Often people have had to hide their lights under bushel baskets and bury their talents in the field. It's much easier to keep control of things when everyone must conform. When the windows are closed everything sits comfortably on one's desk. But open the windows and things might start blowing around.
“The Spirit is moving all over this land.” The wind blows where it wills. Jokes were made about the windows of the Vatican that John the Twenty Third opened up. The fresh air is giving us parishes where the talents of more than the priests are being called forth.
In the religious communities we have mixed reactions to all this as people are learning more and more how to breathe the new air. Situations are much harder to control when people can express their gifts much more openly. Members complain that so and so is never home. Obviously, the problem is not the new air in the Church. The problem is the home and the people in it. If people look to the symbol of the upper room as a model for the need to eat together, talk to each other, express their fears and complaints together, and then decide together, then the community should not get in the way of the Spirit of God.
We need communities then where people will be at home with God and neighbor. An example that impresses me deeply is the fellowship in Charismatic meetings. There people pray in varieties of ways and it doesn't seem to bother the people around them. I've noticed that at every meeting there are usually a few “odd characters” -- sometimes unbalanced. Yet there is a deep bond of charity and unity present. I'm not impressed by the gift of tongues. Like Paul, I'm not that crazy about its use (1 Corinthians 14: 2, 5). But I am impressed by some of the other gifts -- especially love. I am impressed by the fruits of the Spirit that I've seen in the Charismatic Renewal: “joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Galatians 5: 22-23)
If there is any one word other than love that weaves its way through the pages of both the Old and the New Testaments it's that word “spirit”. In the Book of Ezekiel we have that powerful vision of the field of dead bones. Ezekiel stood there in that valley surrounded by skeletons and heard the Lord say,
Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came and stood upright, a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: O My People, I will openyour graves and have you rise from them, and bring them back to the land of Israel (Ezekiel 37: 9 - 12)
The Son of Man came. He rose from the dead. He promised the Spirit. The New Israel, a new hope, began in the upper room. They rose from their chairs and brought the good news of Jesus into the whole world.
CONCLUSION
These ideas hopefully will help Christians pull together the reality of what a community, especially a religious community, is. This is one person's vision. By putting it in writing it helped me attempt to clarify what I'm beginning to understand. Hopefully, many more people will express their's and together we'll build the house of God, upper room and all. Thank you for listening.
Picture on top is of The Cenacle or Last Supper Room. It's located on the second floor of the Tomb of David building in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is described as "the traditional site that commemorates Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples."
