2nd Sunday of Easter, B April 7, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Does it sound like a cult to you? When you hear that first reading describing the early Christian church, perhaps everyone being “of one heart and mind” sounds a bit like not letting people think for themselves. Perhaps having “everything in common” and no one claiming “any of his possessions [as] his own” sounds a bit like a hippy commune. Perhaps letting the Apostles distribute wealth “to each according to need” sounds a bit like giving the leaders too much power and control.
So, does it sound like a cult to you? Probably so because those are things that some cults try to recreate. For a variety of reasons, we hear much more about cults who do these things badly than we do about Christians who live it correctly. Unity of heart and mind, shared possessions, and giving to those in need really are things we should strive for. So cults twist them. The best liars use a bit of truth. The devil cannot create anything of his own, but must warp what is good.
How can I say that these are good things, though? Do I really not want people to think for themselves? Do I really want to ban private property? Do I really want to control who gets what based on need? No. What I do want… What God wants is for us to have unity of mind and heart. But that’s not the same thing as not letting people think for themselves. It’s quite the opposite. In order for hearts and minds to be united, those hearts and minds have to actually work, think, ponder, and engage with the truth. We want a diversity of perspectives and expressions. We just want all of them to be rooted in what is actually true. It’s not “thinking for myself” if I believe and act like 2+2=5. It’s not “thinking for myself” if I believe and act like murder is okay.
The unity of heart and mind we want for the Christian faith is only possible if people freely embrace the truth. No one forced Thomas to accept the Resurrection, but Christ challenged him to greater faith. Forcing someone to pretend they are Christian is not unity. At the same time, human beings need guidance. The Church tells us what is true so that we can be united to it. So the Church challenges ideas. And she only gets forceful with people when they claim to be Catholic but teach what is false. She only seeks to protect the integrity of that truth, not control non-believers.
Indeed, that is a key difference between Catholicism and cults: freedom. We want people to do these things of their own free will. So too forced poverty is not the same as Christian simplicity. Christian charity is not the same thing as communism because communism is when a central authority forces people to give up their property. Christian simplicity is the invitation and call for Christians to detach themselves from material things willingly.
For one thing, the Church does teach that private property is a natural right. Only, it is not an absolute right. That’s a thorny issue and not the point of this homily. Look up Catholic Social Teaching if you want to know more. For this homily, however, the point is that Jesus Christ calls on Christians to voluntarily treat their possessions as if they belong to everyone. It’s the teaching that, if we’re honest, we recognize everything we have is a gift that depends on God.
So, we should see our possessions as a means to an end. Owning something just for the sake of owning it is a problem… probably a sinful one. Authentic Christianity teaches us to put our possessions in service to all. If I have more food than I can eat, more clothing than I can wear, and more cars than I can drive, I ought to see to it that the excess serves those who don’t have enough. Jesus tell us to practice poverty of spirit and of body. If we ignore that challenge, we may well be sinning. But that’s between us and God and God lets people sin all the time. Our job is to live and proclaim the truth, not enforce certain outcomes for others.
Closely related to that is the way Christians let the Apostles distribute their wealth. Again, it’s voluntarily given. The Apostles never took anything. There’s also a practical reality here. It’s not possible for each individual person to always know what every other person needs. So, the practice of sharing things in common means that it’s wise for some people in a community – like the leaders – to be the touchstone between what people have to give and what people need.
Despite the way stories of cults have biased our perspective, Christians do in fact succeed in living this way. Not that anyone lives it perfectly, even the Christians described in the first reading, but they do live it and sometimes live it very well. In fact, there have always been Christians who actually live this way without becoming cults.
The best example is the monasteries and religious orders of men and women who have lived a voluntary communal life of simplicity since the very beginning. There have also always been small groups of Christians who strive for this, sometimes as villages or neighborhoods farming communal land or in shared businesses ventures with varying levels of intentionality. Among non-Catholics, there is the Alleluia Community, the Amish, the Bruderhof communities, and many others.
I’m not here to say that you’ll go to hell if you don’t join a Christian commune of some kind. But I am here to say that the call to unity, community, and simplicity are very real. Most Catholics have sadly never even considered trying to live the way we see described here. We just shut this example from Acts of the Apostles out of our minds, thinking it’s irrelevant. But it isn’t. Even if most of us can’t really join a structured, explicitly Christian community to live this way, we must look for ways to apply these principles in our lives.
Jesus Christ didn’t rise from the dead so we could live perfect middle-class lives wrapped in a bubble of comfort, convenience, and separation. He rose from the dead to make us a people, a single body of believers. That body can’t just be a theoretical thing. It should be easily observed not only the teachings of the Catechism, but also in the way we live, sharing our lives and possessions, and caring for the poor.
This is a hard concept for us. It should challenge us. But do not fear if it’s not immediately obvious what to do about it. Resist the temptation to simply dismiss that discomfort and uncertainty. Like Thomas who struggled to accept what the apostles, what the Church said, lean into that tension and seek the truth.
Finally, remember that on the first day he rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to the Apostles to give them the one thing most needed for this new way of life: mercy. He gives them the sacrament of confession. He purposely links being forgiven by God with being forgiven by the Church… the community of faith. For it is his mercy that makes it possible to reconcile and unite hearts and minds in the truth. It is his mercy that enables us to give mercy to others even if we have nothing else to give. It is his mercy that was first given to the apostles so that they and their successors could distribute that mercy according to need… and we all need mercy. So, I urge you… challenge you… where God’s mercy leads the way, strive to make your hearts, your minds, your bodies, and even your possessions follow so that others may come to believe and have life in his name.