"This is Church."

Tonight was an incredible night for my community, in the most unexpected of ways.

As I mentioned previously, my community has been bonding through laughter very much over the past few days.  Today was no exception – after a long day of training we were all pretty tired and getting progressively goofier by the moment.  Around 5 I convinced my housemates to walk a few blocks to get an iced coffee (they were on sale – any size for $1!) to wake us up and keep us from eating dinner too early.  In the midst of a conversation on the walk back home, we somehow got to talking about what feminism is and how it is interpreted in today’s culture.

The conversation became lively and spanned throughout the early evening as a few people stepped to the kitchen to make dinner.  While topics rotated throughout dinner, we continually came back to major issues such as racism and sexism, among other more lighthearted stories.  We sat around the dinner table for two hours chatting and enjoying one another’s company before finally deciding to have a movie night.  Since we had discussed feminism and the role of women so much, we settled on the one hour documentary MissRepresentation (which I recommend everyone watch).  We headed to the basement and settled into the couches and watched the film.

While the film was extremely powerful and informative, it was the time that followed that was truly incredible.  The housemate who had brought the film casually asked if anyone had initial reactions.  Slowly but surely, people began sharing their thoughts and opinions.  One way or another, the conversation shifted to a discussion on Mary and the role of feminism and women in the Church.  This then evolved into a general discussion of faith and beliefs that I cannot even attempt to summarize in this small of a format.  For nearly 3 hours a group of twelve people in their twenties comprised of theology majors, devout Catholics, non-practicing Catholics, questioning people of faith, an Evangelical Christian and a non-practicing Buddhist had a dialogue that would be envied by religious leaders.  Not only was the conversation deep and thought provoking, but almost more importantly it took place in a natural and unstructured way, in a loving and open manner, and contained no yelling, anger, or hurt feelings despite a wide spectrum of beliefs.  Amidst the conversation, as we discussed the many sects of Christianity and ways of practicing the faith, one of my housemates astutely said, “This is Church.”  Amen, sister, Amen. 

Coming into my Amate year, I was hopeful I would have a chance to talk about faith and spirituality in order to grow and shape my own beliefs.  I envisioned this happening on organized retreats, at weekly community nights, and through discussions with my spiritual companion.  Never did I imagine such a beautiful and enriching conversation would happen so naturally, and especially so soon.  This night gave me such reassurance that I am in the right place, and God is here.

Towards the end of the conversation, we all stated how grateful we were that we had a safe space and a solid foundation for our community.  As tough as it was to think about, we acknowledged that we knew it would not always be this easy.  There would be times we would disagree – whether over how to spend house money, how to best keep cohesion, how to structure community nights.  But we all shared the hope that no matter what, we’d always remember this night and this feeling, and no matter how frustrated we might sometimes get with one another, we’d always try to keep in mind the loving foundation we build tonight.

This is Church.