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KOINONIA
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In last weekend’s homily I made observations about various key terms in our excerpt from St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (1:3-11, as I revised the Lectionary’s “slice and dice”). One of those terms was koinonia, and I thought it deserved a more ample unpacking than I was able to do in the context of our Sunday Eucharist.
First, a fuller version of the quote I alluded to in the homily, about the weakness of “fellowship” as a translation: “Our common translation of this rich New Testament word is ‘fellowship’ but that overused and misused word probably will not carry the freight any more. For the church today to announce a meeting for the purpose of fellowship is in essence to promise all attending that there will be no serious business, no worship, no work. Given the degeneration of language, one has to say something different in order to mean the same thing” (Fred Craddock, Interpretation: Philippians, p 17).
So how should koinonia be translated for us? In the homily, I suggested perhaps “communion” (which our current Roman Missal uses) or “community.” Both are better than “fellowship,” but “communion” carries its own problems. It can too easily sound like the purpose of koinonia is simply to receive Communion at Mass (too subjective, too “me and Jesus,” to be helpful). Although “community” is based on the same Latin words, it is a stronger choice.
Where the Roman Missal uses it is in the beginning of the Mass as one of the optional greetings of the presider to the congregation. It comes from II Corinthians 13:13—Paul’s “sign-off” to that church. And it is the koinonia of the Holy Spirit he is invoking for them (and therefore for us). This is crucial, I think. What does it mean to have “community” with the Holy Spirit?
In the Upper Room on Easter night Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples to make them Apostles (“As the Father has sent me, so I send you”—John 20:19-23). It empowers them to be witnesses and to proclaim Jesus Risen, and it enables them to forgive sins. Luke offers a similar understanding through the end of the Third Gospel and the course of the Acts of the Apostles: the Holy Spirit will empower the believers from on high; the Spirit will come upon them at Pentecost; the Spirit will lead them step by step from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. How is all this possible? It is by koinonia in the Spirit.
Here, then, is the bottom line: we are called to be community in the Spirit for the sake of evangelization, of testifying to the truth of the Gospel; to be active members of the Body of Christ; to be people of the Beatitudes, living witnesses to the reality of the Kingdom. We cannot do this alone! This is where any “me and Jesus” theology fails. We must come together in solidarity in order to be credible. This is why we cannot be satisfied with live-streamed Eucharist and on-line tithing; physical presence is critical because we need to be reminded that we are not alone. Together, we can accomplish things for the Kingdom that we cannot accomplish by ourselves.
We need to gather to be effective. We need to gather to remind others (and be reminded ourselves) that we are not isolated. “Isolated Christians are paralyzed Christians,” an old Cursillo saying tells us. And we cannot afford to be paralyzed. We have work to do.
