From "A Story-Formed Community:Reflections on Watership Down in The Hauerwas Reader.
The rabbits of Watership Down were staying with Cowslip's warren. There was not chief Rabbit there...no need for cunning or tricks...no fear...a large den with plenty to eat and a farmer near by to make sure there was always food for them. There was "one strict rule: No one must ever ask where another rabbit was and anyone who asked: 'Where' - except in song or a poem - must be silenced."
Because they could not ask where anyone was, they also lost the most precious skills rabbits needed to survive: cooperation and friendship. One could not risk getting to close to another rabbit, for that one might be the next to die. Friendship implies mutual giving of aid, but these rabbits had accepted a social system that required them to look after themselves first.
The Church must be a gathering of friends -at least. This would mean that each of us would be concerned and connected to others. Our prayers would be on behalf of those around us and therefore, our lives would be eternally connected no matter what might come upon us this day. The temptation to be self-concerned to the point of withdrawal from others can become so great because it is easy to think that our own preservation and meeting our own needs will provide us with a life that is whole and complete. Well, it may be complete -in that we become all there is in our lives - but it is not whole. The others in our lives who become our friends not only draw us into new life with new perspectives, we are also drawn up into a give & take that brings each of our gifts to the table to share with one another. Christians are often called "friends of the Lord" because our ties...our friendships...are born out of the water of our baptism and in the shape of the one whose love would not let us go. That is a story of a friendship that creates bonds of loving compassion for one another: A community of Christ.
Connection: I can be in the middle of a bad day and be instantly renewed when I enter the presence of friends. Maybe it is the freedom to speak and laugh and share all that is good and bad about life. Maybe it is the opportunity I am given to sort through life's many problems and predicaments. Will we have the opportunity today to engage in conversation with those who we call friends...and to simply know that we can be silent among them and still be a part of a group of people connected to one another?
Spirit of God you bind us together with a love that forms a community and nurtures friendships and pulls us into relationship so that each of us may have the many gifts and resources for life. Let you Spirit whip around us and create friendships that make us a body of saints being reshaped each day by one another presence. Amen
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