Quotes about Community

God is the only properly functioning community in the universe

True human community only arises out of communion with God

And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

but God wants to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we would see our need for a relationship with him as well as with others.

Genesis 2 is not speaking primarily to Adam's experience of being lonely as much as it is revealing his nature as the person God created him to be. Because God created a communal being—someone designed for relationships—creation is incomplete without a suitable companion.

The reason we know this is true is because the word "helper" is often used to describe God's relationship with his people.

So God is not addressing Adam's workload, but rather the fact that he is a social being who lacks a suitable companion.

Jesus was willing to be the forsaken brother so that we could have godly relationships. Jesus was willing to be the crucified King so that our communities would experience peace.

Why bother with other people?

Yet something keeps dragging us back to other people. We know we are less than human when we are all alone.

We live with this tension between self-protective isolation and the dream for meaningful relationships.

I use both the 'I' and the 'we.' For on many, many matters, I am not simply expressing ideas that have happened to occur to Joseph Ratzinger, but I am speaking out of the common life of the Church's communion.