The fraternity of Jesus
When the itinerant fraternity of Jesus disappeared, with the scattering of the Apostles into the world, at Jerusalem emerged a copy of that apostolic family. The Acts of the Apostles presents us the Community of Jerusalem as the ideal of Christian life.
They lived united. They had everything in common. They were seen as joyful. They never spoke with possessive adjectives: “mine,” “yours.” They went to the Temple every day with great fervor. They were regarded as nice by everyone. In a word, they were united by one heart and one soul. All this made a positive impression on people.
The evangelical fraternity has its reason to be within itself: that of being an environment in which brothers strive to establish true interpersonal and fraternal relationships.
Brotherhood does not only mean that we live together, helping and complementing each other in a common task, as in a pastoral team, but it mainly means that we keep our gaze fixed on one another to love each other mutually. More than that, it indicates that we live with one another in the same manner that the Lord gave us the example and the precept.
This love, lived by the brothers in the world, will be the wake-up call and tangible argument that Jesus is the Messenger of the Father and that He is alive among us. If people see a group of brothers living together in joyful harmony, they will believe that Christ must be alive. Otherwise, so much fraternal beauty could not be explained. Thus, fraternity becomes a sacrament, an indisputable and prophetic sign of God’s liberating power.
The people possess great sensitivity. They perceive with certainty when envy reigns among brothers, when indifference prevails, and when there is harmony.
People know from their own experience how much it costs to love those who are difficult, how much generosity is needed to practice oblative love. A united community quickly becomes, for the People of God, a sign of admiration, and is also a sign of questioning that challenges those People and forces them to ask themselves about the redemptive action of Jesus Christ, whose fruits are evident.
Taken from the book “Come with Me” Chapter II, Section “Sign and Goal”, by Father Ignacio Larrañaga.