By Ruth Statz
Staff Writer
“Ascension Podcast” Co-Host, Dave Vanvickle, gave a talk on the importance of community life at the Behold Retreat, which was on Jan. 31-33.
Despite its late start on a Friday night, the retreat, which is hosted annually by Franciscan University, attracted a large and diverse crowd from students and faculty members to families and grandparents.
Vanvickle’s talk centered around the importance of relationship and connection, relating it to the story of Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac, as well as connecting it to his personal mission work. To people’s surprise, he spent the first couple of minutes telling the audience how cringy and uncomfortable he felt about the concept of community.
“I cringe at the word ‘community,’ not just because I’m not good at it, but because it doesn’t do justice to what we’re talking about. When you think of community, I think of like, trust falls and massage trains and stuff like that,” claimed Vanvickle.
Once he shared these all too relatable struggles with community life, he reflected on the scripture passage of Jesus freeing the Gerasene demoniac.
He said that the Gerasene demoniac spent his life entirely isolated from the rest of society, that Jesus specifically sought him out and went well out of his way to get to him. Once he reached him and freed him from the demons, though, something very important happened, says Vanvickle.
“This guy, this poor demoniac, who’s on the opposite side of the Kingdom of Heaven; he’s totally isolated. Then he’s freed and wants to go to Jesus and Jesus says, ‘No. Go back to your family.’ That means something,” said Vanvickle.
God’s mission, says Vanvickle, was not just to free the Gerasene demoniac but to put him back into the community, and that is a major indicator of how deeply God cares about community.
“There’s something about this thing between you and I; that God wants to encounter us in community,” said Vanvickle.
After sharing his personal exegesis of the Gerasene scripture passage, Vanvickle related it to his career as a missionary. He advised those thinking about working as a missionary that having a second job is crucial, so he talked about his job working security at a bar in Texas.
“It was like this huge club, and it had like three-thousand people. It was basically Gerasene; it was totally outside of the Kingdom,” said Vanvickle.
He realized that the people he was encountering were desperate for the Lord and that he needed to evangelize to them.
“I think most of us think that bar ministry is probably harder than parish ministry, but I have not found that. What I have found is that the farther away someone is from the Lord, the more they feel it,” says Vanvickle.
While working and evangelizing at this bar, Vanvickle met one of the most annoying yet one of the loneliest people he’d ever known. His name was Patrick. Anytime Vanvickle would speak about Jesus or his faith, Patrick would respond jeeringly and criticize Vanvickle in front of everyone. Vanvickle thought that Patrick just hated him.
Eventually he could take it no longer and asked Patrick what his problem was. To his surprise, Patrick’s “problem” had much less to do with Vanvickle himself and way more to do with Patrick.
“Why are you so happy?” said Patrick. “I’m so alone.”
Vanvickle realized then that this man who had bullied and abused him was actually longing for connection and relationship. When he bumped into him again later in life, Patrick claimed that he was the happiest man in the world.
“And for the first time in his life he knew how to talk to other people and relate to other people because he knew that God’s love had been poured into his life,” said Vanvickle.
The night ended with eucharistic adoration and praise and worship. Very appropriate, as Vanvickle’s talk expounded specifically upon the human heart’s longing to belong; to walk side-by-side in community with Christ as the focus.