ad vitam - Winter 2020

E DITORIAL
Where two or three
are gathered
Sabrina Di Matteo, Assistant Director, Ongoing Formation, Canadian Religious Conference
“For where two or three are gathered in my
name, I am there among them.” This verse of
Matthew 18:20 is often considered foundational
of community gathering. It is the smallest
ekklesia, the humblest convocation of an
assembly in the same faith.
This recalls the adage "A Christian alone is a
Christian in danger." Danger of what? It is generally
understood as the risk of losing one’s
faith by not sustaining it within a community.
However, given the systemic extent of sexual
abuse, abuse of power and spiritual abuse, I
The call to communion in consecrated life
and in the Church is the pledge of a just
(and adjusted) vision that is enlightened
– and corrected as necessary – by a
community that discerns what the Gospel
calls for and generates a mission of
multiple ways and faces. Let us be that
transfigured face!
would argue that there is another confirmed
danger of isolation: that of perverting beliefs or
constructing a self-serving spirituality, implemented
by an isolated, often adulated leader
who gradually introduces other vulnerable
believers into his perversion, and even in an
unhealthy fusional relationship.
The brokenness of communion is ultimately
what harms the mission. In this sense, the Trinity
can truly be a model of theology and ecclesiology
capable of preventing the above-mentioned
risks. A third party purifies the bonds,
disrupts the fusion, invites to a wider communion.
Therein is the reflection proposed in
this issue thanks to the contributions of the
Theological Commission of the CRC. What
would seem self-evident in consecrated life –
communion and mission – deserves to be
re-examined in light of the Bible, of theology
and of pastoral practice. These pages
are interspersed with
references to Christus
vivit, an exhortation to
synodality, the communion
and mission with
younger generations.
There is in fact an issue
of otherness in these
reflections, insofar as
it calls us to hospitality,
mercy, and mutual
elevation.
The call to communion
in consecrated life and in
the Church is the pledge
of a just (and adjusted) vision that is enlightened
– and corrected as necessary – by a community
that discerns what the Gospel calls for
and generates a mission of multiple ways and
faces. Let us be that transfigured face!
AD VITAM • WINTER 2020 • 3