The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Visitation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, May 31, 2008, St Mary’s Convent, Sewanee

“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14).

It’s a great celebration today, for this religious community of St Mary’s Convent, but also for the larger community of which it’s a part. New members are coming into the community, to augment it and to shape it in new ways. New members are joining a community with a great tradition, and in the process being conformed more closely to Christ himself.

Community is at the heart of who we are as Christians; and religious communities have much to teach the rest of us about what it means to be a part of the community of faith. By “religious community” of course I mean a community gathered for a life together under the special and specific three-fold vows, religious communities in the technical sense. The life that is lived at St Mary’s Convent is different from but also similar to the sort of life lived in any other Christian household; different from but also similar to the life lived in any community of faith including the local Church. Maybe there’s a greater sense of focus on the basics of prayer and apostolic work in religious communities, and a more conscious intentionality; but I believe that as the century progresses all Christian households and congregations will learn much from the very focused and intentional nature of the religious life, and will come to resemble it in some very important but not so obvious ways. Remember, monasticism in the West grew up in the ruins of the Roman Empire, at a time of cultural change and chaos. It’s arguable that the Church as a whole will need to learn again the lessons of the great monastic founders, lessons of focus and intentionality forged in the life of prayer and work, if we are to continue with our mission in the future.

Community is at the heart of who we are as Christians; and St Paul reminds us today that it is love that is at the heart of Christian community. “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony”. The virtues that are practiced within Christian community, enumerated by St Paul, are held together by love, by charity, the willingness to give for the other; and it is this love that binds the community itself together. Show me a community and I will show you people who are bound together in love toward something or someone. God, of course, is the end of all desiring, the common object of our love (cf. Augustine), and it is this common love that creates Christian community. Kindling a fire of love in our hearts toward God, and sharing it in community, changes lives, transforms the world, and brings us at last to the kingdom of God.

We practice the faith and journey toward our goal as a part of the Body of Christ. In community we need all the compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and forgiveness that we can get. Love binds them together, and binds us together as well, in fellowship with each other. Jesus is our model and example. In extending his arms on the cross, Jesus stretched his own compassion, patience, and forgiveness far beyond any purely human norm, and became our own example of love and the means of our salvation. In extending his arms on the cross, Jesus stretched himself to accommodate the whole world; a lesson we learn living in community as we stretch our own love and willingness to give.

Let’s end with what St Augustine said to his congregation in North Africa, many centuries ago: “In loving your neighbor and caring for him you are on a journey. Where are you traveling if not to the Lord God, to him whom we should love with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind? We have not yet reached his presence, but we have our neighbor at our side. Support, then, this companion of your pilgrimage if you want to come into the presence of the one with whom you desire to remain for ever” (Sermons on John, 17). That love and support take place in community: in the household and in the congregation, and in religious community.

The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

Back to Bishop's Forum