Community. I make no apologies for celebrating the sense of community that I learned from my undergraduate experience. During those most impressionable of the young adult years (18-22), I was fortunate enough to learn about the call to community that is at the heart of our life as Catholics. But community means more than wearing the same colors, living the same traditions your father or grandfather held dear, or even making lifelong friends. What my college years taught me about community is that its rewards are well worth its challenges. Much of the ink that has been spilled about young adult ministry speaks about the need for community. Young adults are hungry for community, in a world of virtual connections, in a state or city far from their hometown, in an area where they may know few people outside work or school. But the challenge of building real community seems daunting. We don't have front porches anymore; we've all heard that we're "bowling alone." It's easier to pick up a cell phone and reach a high school buddy than it is to go out and meet peers with similar values in a new town.
But Catholic social teaching calls us to be and do more. Its very name reminds us that we are inherently social beings who suffer when we lack meaningful connections with others. It insists that people deserve protection, freedom, and support to flourish as humans in community. And it consoles us that even in the midst of our individualistic, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" society, it is good to depend on each other and to celebrate the richness of the diversity of gifts in the human family.
How can our churches help young adults to find and build strong, supportive communities? This question hangs on my mind today, since I will be speaking at a Theology on Tap gathering tonight about "Young Adults in the Body of Christ." Just as the head needs the feet, the eyes needs the ears, so too does the Church need young adults in order to be a healthy, thriving Body of Christ in the world today. But there is much work that needs to be done in our parishes, dioceses, and even the universal church to make this a reality. As an advocate for young adult ministry, however, I make no qualms about insisting that the rewards of building up the Body of Christ in this way will undoubtedly be well worth the challenges...
