Of One Heart and Mind

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

The first reading for today's liturgy is the same as the first reading from this past Sunday. It speaks of the communal lifestyle of the early Christian community and introduces us to one of the central characters of the Acts of the Apostles, St. Barnabas. The men and women of this community claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common (Acts 4:32). After my explanation of this passage at my weekly Bible study class, one of the participants said, "Of course, that wouldn't work today!" I was somewhat surprised by the comment since I usually don't "preach" about the Scriptures in my class, leaving that up to the homilist on Sunday. Making a practical application from the Scriptures would, consequently, not be part of the scope of the class.

However, I did pause and simply say, "Why not?" I am sure that you can imagine the responses to my question. They ranged from the perspective of the right to ownership to a condemnation of communism. Of course, the lifestyle described in the Acts of the Apostles is communal or communistic. However, it is NOT atheistic communism, the kind that exists in many countries today.

The history of the church tells us that the lifestyle of the Acts of the Apostles served as the basis for the very first religious communities that sprang up in the Church beginning with the followers of St. Benedict and continuing on to the present day with the followers of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. While that may be true, there is an inherent danger in assigning particular verses of the Scriptures to segments of the Church rather than to the Church as a whole.

Here we are some five days since my Bible study class of Friday, and I am still pondering the question, "Why not?" Perhaps this is just another way of saying that we believe in the power of the resurrection. Do we really believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Does that belief influence the way we live?