Somewhere in every heart is a longing for home. We’ve all
felt that deep ache. I first felt it when I was 7 sent off to summer camp while
my family moved to a new home. The ache was so deep; the resident Collie feeling
a small child’s pain lay down with me each day while I wept. Home is where we
feel we belong.
At the end of the Wiz, Dorothy sings “When I think of home I
think of a place with love overflowing”. To belong should mean to feel loved. I
was loved; we were loved not only by my family but by a brilliant and
compassionate community of women. The Immaculate Heart of Mary Community was my
first clan, my first Beloved Community. They were our mentors and our role
models; we were raised to be as they were - to offer love to others. Hospitality
and welcome to all persons were their core value and ours. Women of Great Heart
is the motto of the high school I attended. We were aspiring to be women of Great
Heart. I was home there.
For the past week we have been celebrating and exploring
what it means to be a community this year and beyond. Speakers have explored
God’s Dream for Community, through readings from the Old and New Testament. This
article is the first of six exploring aspects of the Beloved Community. Here we
introduce the Beloved Community and visit an example of a Beloved Community in
Seattle.
I first learned of the Beloved Community in Greensboro,
North Carolina. The Rev. Nelson Johnson, founded the community after he was
stabbed by a klansman and arrested during an anti-klan rally in 1979 which he
helped organize. The Beloved Community was the vision of the Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth.” “The
core value of Dr. King’s Beloved Community was agape love which he described as
“understanding, redeeming goodwill for all,” an “overflowing love which is
purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless and creative. ”…”the love of God
operating in the human heart.” King said that “Agape does not begin by
discriminating between worthy and unworthy people…It begins by loving others
for their sakes” and “makes no distinction between a friend and enemy; it is
directed toward both. Agape is love seeking to preserve and create community.” It
seemed clear to me that this was an unattainable goal. So, I wondered, “what
does this have to do with me, with us, when we live in a world that is being
torn apart by violence and hatred?
How can Beloved Community, King’s commitment to love all,
enemy or friend, empower me and my community
to survive and thrive?
Philosopher, Josiah Royce, first explained the Beloved
Community in the late 1800s. For Royce, Beloved Community is central to
transforming the heart of humanity. It is how we will make it through the
chaotic times in which we are living. An
overwhelming love, Royce tells us is exactly what we need to be human. For
Royce, in order to have a meaningful life, we must find a cause, a life
purpose, that is born in our life experience and is inspired from within to
seek truth and kindness. For a cause to be good, it must be greater than anyone
or any community can attain and it must be good for everyone not just a few. Royce
called this a lost cause because we are aspiring to an ideal we can never
attain. We are all Don Quixote chasing the impossible dream. Sister Simone told
us, “you’ll know you’ve found your cause when it breaks your heart open”. Royce
believed that causes are found in the social landscapes in which we live; we find
a home in communities where we share their cause. The Civil Rights movement of
Dr. King, and the Beloved Community of Reverend Johnson were communities with a
shared cause.
Every good fight fought in this world has started with a
heart broken open. Malala’s dream is education for girls everywhere. Mother
Teresa’s was a good death for everyone. For Jimmy Carter it is homes for all. Impossible
dreams are found in communities of dreamers and while we can’t reach the
ultimate dream, our search moves us to accomplish amazing things.
For a number of years, Hillary Clinton has reached out with
heart, hand, and treasure to Children, families, youth in prison, dreamers, immigrants, refugees, women and
girls worldwide. Having known the ache of being far from home, I was more than
delighted to learn of this place where the longing for home is made whole for
women and girls like me. If you are looking to be inspired you won’t want to rest
until your heart breaks open. Our prayer
is that by exploring Beloved Community we will the renew our commitment to
Agape, hold our Beloved Community together, and renew our commitment to the Impossible
Dream, inspiring the amazing work we do. May it be so.
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