Mark 10:29-30
29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
It has finally dawned on me why there are so few Catholic communities in America and why people resist building community.
Four reasons, quickly.
1) Status and family pride are more important that Christian community. People are hung up on genealogies and cultivating family over any other type of gatherings or sacrifice.
2) The Kingdom of God is not a priority as Christ intended it to be. The early Church left the pagan families and joined community. Catholics are not leaving pagans who refuse to convert and thereby, weaken their own faith and neglect the building of real Catholic communities.
So, this is not happening. Catholics insist on spending too much time with unbelievers who may even abuse them and their faith.
3) "Rugged individualism", another false American ideal, interferes with the creation of community.
I am afraid that many will fall away and be lost in the coming tribulation because they had the time to create Catholic communities and did not do so.
Remember, Christian communities grew because the pagans saw how the Catholics loved one another. This is not the case in the States in areas where there are no communities.
One last point.
4) Americans have chosen to live in fear. We now have a culture of mistrust and fear. Part of this is the lack of the development of the gift of knowledge, which brings discernment, given in Confirmation.
Without community, the remnant will be very small, indeed.