Written by Sr. Rosemary Finnegan, O.P.
Last week, I saw the movie “Paul, Apostle of Christ”. It’s well worth seeing, and is the story of the last days of St. Paul who is imprisoned and condemned to death for treason. His friend and former traveling companion, Luke, visits him and there the story unfolds.
A good portion of the film is spent with the underground Christian community of believers in Rome. The agony they lived through, the persecutions they endured, the deliberations they experienced and the decisions they faced all became very real to me. Most poignant was their difficult decision to let love rule all their actions; they rejected violence, they loved one another, and, despite their fear, they even loved their enemies who persecuted them daily. Paul made that message of love very clear, and when you see the conditions he was subject to, and the accusations and suffering he endured, one can only be humbled and awed by his commitment and courage. It is most inspiring.
In our 1st reading from Acts today, we hear about that very first community of Christ’s followers. It said “the community of believers was of one heart and mind.” Through Christ they were bound together, intertwined as a community of faith. They were becoming Church, a God-given support system. That movie graphically shows the challenges they endured each day…women, men and children.
It wasn’t easy to follow Christ in the 1st century. Times were tough and persecutions a reality. The early believers needed each other. They had a single focus: devoting themselves to the message of Jesus. They lived it out by teaching, praying and gathering at the Lord’s Table. There were no “lone ranger” Christians. Together they make every effort to be led by God’s Spirit and to think and act like Christ.
We also read that “no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.” Their ministry included sharing material goods to meet others’ needs, especially those of the poor. This Christian sharing still is God’s plan for meeting the needs of His hurting children. When we pool our resources for the common good, we are being responsible as a faith community to reach out to others.
Here at SMM, we try very hard to serve those in need, both within our community of faith and to the larger community. One glance at the opportunities listed in the bulletin gives evidence of that.
We know that together we can all make a difference, that God desires to use his Church to do powerful things. In Christ we are a community of faith, forming a church where we can minister and be ministered to. In this, we’re not so different from the disciples described in Acts today.
In our age of individualism, community is the gift we have to offer that challenges our times. Community dares all of us to look beyond our personal needs to the greater needs of our community, our country, and our earth environment.
