When you are dreaming with others it is the beginning of reality.”
It made me think about our conversation the other day about community and the (deleterious) decline of community in the church. As we’ve been hearing the texts of Advent–especially the amazing promises of God contained in the prophets–Dom Camara’s words fit right in.
In Isaiah we hear of deserts becoming life-giving pools of water, wolves lying down with lambs, the poor judged with righteousness, sorrow and sighing fleeing away, the lame leaping like deer, the tools of war turned into tools for growing food, nations being at peace with one another…
On our own, we can only dream of all of that taking place. On our own, it is impossible to do anything other than dream about it. But together, as a community, we work and pray and rejoice with God to bring about God’s desires for the world and all its inhabitants. Together, with God and one another, we can make those powerful words we hear in Isaiah a reality.