COMMUNITY
Harvest in Provence, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888
Time before time, when the world was young, two brothers shared a field and a mill. Each night they divided evenly the grain they had ground together during the day. Now as it happened, one of the brothers lived alone while the other brother had a wife and children. One day, the single brother thought to himself: "It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have only myself to care for, but my brother has a family to feed." So each night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary to see that he was never without.
But the married brother said to himself one day, "It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly, because I have children to provide for me in my old age, but my brother has no one. What will he do when he is alone and unable to care for himself?" So, every night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary. As a result, they both found their supply of grain mysteriously replenished each morning.
One night the brothers met each other halfway between their two houses, realized what had been happening, and embraced each other in love. God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed, "This is a holy place—a place of love—and here it is that my temple shall be built."
And so it was. The holy place, where God is made known, is the place where human beings discover each other in love.