Deacon Tom Writes,
Of One Heart and Mind
If you were asked to name one reason why the
followers of Jesus were able to succeed in forming a community of believers,
you could look to at the first line from today’s reading from Acts of the
Apostles. There we read, “The community
of believers was of one heart and mind.” Unity is a powerful state of mind.
It goes a long way in moving a community forward to accomplish the very goals
and ideals that brought individuals together in the first place. It seems that
one of the things that mattered to the Followers of the Way in those first days
after Christ had died was that “There was
no needy person among them.” You see, those first Christians did what they
saw their Master do; they took care of one another physically and spiritually just as Jesus taught them to do.
It seems that we are at a point in time when we
Christians have lost that sense of unity that was so important in the early
church. One can only wonder if we can ever regain that sense of working
together to transform the world according to the gospel mandate. Does our love
for Christ today impose upon us any sense of obligation for us to work together
to solve some of the problems that are so blatantly visible around us: the problems of hunger, disease,
violence, indifference, mean spiritedness to name but a few? Our inability to
address these social maladies contributes to the spirit of division and the
resulting polarization that has settled in like a heavy fog distorting our
vision of the Kingdom Christ instituted.
We Americans have fallen into a faulty mindset. We
believe that if you work hard enough you can succeed, that every individual on
his or her own can overcome any obstacle. That’s a flagrant distortion of the
reality around us. Most informed people are aware of the systemic problems with
funding education and the massive difference in the quality of education
between cities and suburbs, the lack of jobs and the opportunity to “get ahead”
for growing numbers of Americans, and the existence of an expansive population
of people living on the margins, pay check to pay check, while an elite few
accumulate massive wealth. We know there is a huge drug and alcohol problem
that renders newborn infants mentally deficient for life. There is pervasive
poverty that prevents many people from getting proper nutrition for themselves
and their children. Etc., etc., etc. Poverty, disease, ignorance, hunger, and
many other conditions that we turn a blind eye to, separate and divide us from
one another. They work contrary to all that Christ taught us during his
ministry.
As we experience the joy of the Risen Lord this
Easter season, let us invoke Him to help us realize our call to be of one heart and mind and to enable us to
realize that we all share in the One Body of Christ. Let us pray that with Our
Lord’s help and grace we may one day soon proclaim, “We have no needy among us.”
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
