Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
We are meant to live in community. The foundation of community is found in the Creation of the world. The first community is the Holy Trinity, one God, in three persons, who share one will. In Genesis 1:26, God created the first human beings by saying “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The community of the Holy Trinity—Let us—created man “in our image, after our likeness,” we are made in the image of God, which is an image of perfect community. We are created to be like God, and thus we are created to crave community. In other words, left to our own devices without guidance, we would naturally gravitate to community. The desire to be alone and disregard community is learned. Love is also innate to human beings. We are naturally “wired” to love. Hate is a learned behavior. The creation is the result of the action of community. The created beings are meant to live in community.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus modeled community and fellowship. He gathered together a small group of friends who He relied on as confidantes and helpers. He knew God wanted Him to minister to others and walk through His hardest days with His friends by His side. We read in the Bible the story of Mary and Martha, and how Jesus would often visit their home. It was a place of respite and refuge for Him. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha, and so Jesus and Lazarus were close friends as well. When Lazarus died, Jesus was so sad that He wept. He was sad because an important member of His community had passed away.
Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples, immediately before He was arrested. He knew what was coming. He knew that He would be tortured, suffer severe pain, be crucified, humiliated, and would die. And He was scared, just like any of us would be at that prospect. He even told His friends, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” (Matthew 26:38) He asked His Disciples to “remain here and watch with Me.” (Matthew 26:38) It’s interesting that He didn’t ask them to do anything else. He didn’t ask them to protect Him, or even pray with Him, or for Him. He just asked them to be present. Sometimes in our “communities” (or families, our friend groups, etc.) just being present is enough. When someone is very sick, we don’t need to go to the hospital and dispense advice, just being present reassures someone that they are not alone, that their community is still around them.
God desires us to be in community with Him and with others. This is a call to action to looks around and seek opportunities to serve others so that we can be united with other believers. In His final instructions to His Disciples before His Passion, Jesus stressed for them the importance of community. In His prayer over them, He prayed
“That they may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.” (John 17:21-23)
God designed us to need other people. We were never meant to experience life alone. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, we read Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. In monastic communities, some monks choose to live as hermits, meaning they live out on their own with minimal contact. Yet, even these come back to the community for worship, they have a spiritual father, to direct them and to confide in.
The whole premise of marriage is the need for another person. We marry the person we marry out of love, but we enter into the state of marriage because of need. When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden and made him the overseer of all that He had created, Adam was still not content, because there wasn’t a helper fit for him, there was no community of peers for him, just the animals and the nature God had created. In Genesis 2:18, which is the mention of marriage in the Bible, we read Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” When God made woman and brought her to man, he was exultant and said “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”
Each of us is blessed by God with unique gifts to bring into our community. There is no one who has every gift, no one who does not have some limitation. This is why we need community, in order to contribute our gifts, and receive the benefit of the gifts that others have that we do not have. For instance, I have a gift to write, speak, teach and counsel. I do not have a gift to build houses, or build roads, or administer schools. In my community, I need a home in which to live, a road on which to drive and a school in which to place our son. I rely on my community for these things. In this case, the community refers not only to my place of worship, but the city in which I live. However, within my church community, there is still a need to many gifts that I do not have. I don’t know anything about electrical work, yet we need an electrician whenever the power doesn’t work properly. I don’t know how to make Prosphora, and relay on others to make it for Divine Liturgy. In Ephesians 4:11-12, St. Paul tells us that each of us has a gift to bring into the church community, in order to build up the Body of Christ, when he writes And His gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. In Romans 1:11-12, St. Paul writes: For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. He reminds us that we need one another to encourage faith, which means that even me, as a priest, still need people to encourage me in my faith. We all need that. And it is found in community.
Lord, thank You for the communities in which I live—my family, my church family, my neighborhood, my work. Help me contribute to the welfare of each of these communities, and inspire the people of my communities to contribute to my well-being also. Help me to recognize the specific gifts I bring into my church community. Inspire me, and all the members of my church community to offer our gifts generously, so that we can all be mutually encouraged in our faith and spiritual growth. Amen.
Let us remember that we are meant to live in community, and let us offer what we can to strengthen our communities.
