Community is important

Community—the oft-quoted buzz word lauded on admissions tours and leveraged in fundraising campaigns—what does it really mean, and why should anyone care?

Perhaps the most important of the twelve Benedictine values listed on the CSB+SJU institutional values page, our commitment to Community Living—to become who we are through our relationship with others—has never been more important to ensuring the vitality and vibrancy of a healthy joint-campus culture.

While some estimations may differ, I consider the entire population of St. Ben’s and St. John’s students, our faculty, staff and administrators, our monastic sponsors, the storied classes of alumnae and alumni, all the parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and business partners of our joint institutions as being part of our common community. To extend one step further, our Catholic-Benedictine charters would seem to include all of humanity as welcome and gracious guests in that category as well—a lens that helps us view the CSB+SJU community as a living organism in the life-spectrum of earth. That is to say, we affect and are affected by the world around us.

Of course, our conception and fulfillment of Community Living is limited in the absence of other integral values such as the inherent respect of all persons, our willingness to listen with empathy and our collective thirst for justice. Beyond these, an awareness of God or a higher ideal, a zest and ardor for the common good of all and a recognizable need for a moderated and well-tempered life are also essential components of our Benedictine tradition.

But, as the great Louis D. Johnston, professor of economics, would ask, “So what?” What greater good do any of these values serve, and why should we as students, professors, coaches, presidents or reef workers care to internalize them? Aren’t we all just individuals in a cruel and inequitable world, struggling to make ends meet, pay tuition, brave a pandemic, pass a test, overcome a breakup or find a sliver of mental respite from daily realities of climate catastrophe, human suffering, and our inability to do anything to stop it?

It is precisely these truths—that life is hard, that adversity will inevitably befall us, and that the systems and structures which pervade our world were rarely conceived with the good of all in mind—which necessitate a recommitment to one another, to community. For, when we commit ourselves to the good in each other, it becomes possible to imagine our collective light outshining the darkness in our vision. When we create conditions and provide platforms for others to succeed, flourish and share their gifts, we make space for gratitude and acceptance in our hearts. Yes, we are all just one person, but together we have so much more to give.

So this Homecoming, let your light shine and show one another what it means to be part of CSB+SJU.