Paschal Spirituality - Lived in Community
The second characteristic of Paschal spirituality that Manning mentions in this book is that it is lived out in community. A spirituality that is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus will avoid any exaggerated form of Christian individualism - you know, "Jesus and me, God and me, and that's all that matters."
The Call to Community
But God didn't call us into an isolated Christian life, but into a community. We are individuals, but we're part of a great family of faith. And this verse in 1 John 4 just proves that. John wrote, "No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us."
The Essence of God's Law
A Gentile once went to a local rabbi and said to him, "Convert me to Judaism on the condition that you can teach me the whole Torah while I'm standing on one foot." The rabbi chased him out. And so he went to another rabbi, Rabbi Hillel, and repeated his request: "Convert me to Judaism on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I'm standing on one foot."
Rabbi Hillel converted him by teaching him the following: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah. All the rest is commentary." And of course, Jesus echoed this, but in a positive way, saying "Do to others what you would want them to do to you." That is the summary of the law, basically.
Living Out God's Love
And so, as one theologian once said, “one learns to love God by loving men and women”. Friends, our spirituality must always be lived in community, reaching out to people, loving them with the love of Christ. Who can you reach out to today with the love of Christ as an expression of your Pascal spirituality?
