Community living ...

Place ten different men in one common environment who comes from a diverse background not to mention differences in age, ethnicity, education and social and you'll end up with a constant headache but a very interesting dynamics at play between each other.

 

In some instances you'll see domineering characters, individuals who demands to be respected forgetting that respect is earned, and you'll definitely have one who tends to look down at others thinking he is better than the rest expecting others to obediently follow his instructions, in short trying to be mature but he doesn't even have the experience nor the age to gain such life experiences and a lacking in formal education.

 

How does one attempt to maneuver this daily occurrences and the simple answer is you don't. One just allow it to happen and consider it as part of the formation, the learning process but that is one of the difficult part to do- to be able to take one step back and analyse it and laugh at it. It is always easier said than done but in order for one to survive and try to learn something from it - that is the only way forward and not to be entangled in this web spurn by others who thinks so much highly of themselves not looking at their own image in the mirror which is so filled with ego and self-centredness.

 

If one is able to successfully do so, to avoid all these pit-falls of community living then one is considered as highly successfully to be above all of these but more importantly reach a certain level of maturity and the formation period would be focused no longer on community living but to the next stage which is more tuned towards the academic studies. But this needs a lot of patience, meditation and most of all understanding which is something not gained over night but through a serious process of self examination i.e. in terms of priorities, prayer and guidance from not only the formatters but from God.

 

Community living is the most difficult aspect of formation and this aspect is clearly being given emphasis in addition to spirituality. However, in terms of degree of emphasis I believe it is important that a higher weightage be given to community living as it means the ability to get along with others harmoniously, respecting each other's views/ way of living/ personality but more importantly looking and treating each other equally and lovingly as Christ did to his apostles. It is a tough call yet it has to be nurtured from the onset of formation and not allow ten different people imprinting ten different types of definition of community living who tends to forget the presence of Christ as the glue to the community.