The community of believers were of one heart and one mind.
Acts of the Apostles
2
Our photo albums are a very important part of remembering and sharing the history of our families: births, baptisms, first communions, confirmations, birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, going off to college or the military, Thanksgivings, Christmases, Halloween parties, beach vacations and proms. Smile! Look this way! Stand up straight! Say cheese!
As wonderful as a family photo album is, it never tells the whole story, does it? Unless you were really weird, you never got the camera out to get a shot of Mom the moment she was diagnosed with cancer, you probably didn’t get a shot of Granddad taking his last breath or Grandma in her coffin, you didn’t get a shot of dad in a drunken rage, uncles and aunts not speaking to each other or old girls friends that didn’t work out, you probably didn’t get a shot of Dad when he lost his job or the response on your parents’ faces when they found out that your unmarried sister was pregnant. No, they were normally taken at happy times, when things were at their best
In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today, we have one snapshot of the early church. We have that beautiful passage about everybody meeting for prayer and the breaking of bread, sharing everything in common and attracting new members to the community every day. Unlike most family albums, if you keep reading the Acts of the Apostles, you realize just how disarmingly honest it is! It includes some not so beautiful snapshots of the early church. Not everything was sweetness and light – even in the beginning. Keep reading and you will see another side of the very early church.
(1) Yes, we read that people sold their property and possessions and divided them according to each one’s need, but we also read that the Greek speaking widows complained that the Hebrew speaking widows were getting a disproportionate share of that division. We read that one of the couples, Ananias and Sapphira, made a pledge to sell their property and give it to the church, but also that they actually held back some of the proceeds and later lied about it. They both dropped dead for lying.
(2) Even Paul, before his conversion, we are told, was out rounding up Christian and having them jailed for heresy, even holding the coats of those who stoned St. Stephen to death. A new convert by the name of Simon, we are told, was so amazed that the Holy Spirit was being conferred by the laying on of hands, that he saw a gold mine of opportunity, offering to pay money for that kind of power. These are a few of the not-so-flattering snapshots of the church, even at its beginning, that Scripture has the courage to include.
(3) In another place, St. Paul calls St. Peter “two-faced” for acting one way around Jews and other around Gentiles. We read about Saul and Barnabas running all over that known world proclaiming the word of God, taking John Mark with them. If you read that passage without reading the rest, you would miss the fact that John Mark quit and came home. On the next trip out, Barnabas wanted to forgive him and try him again. Paul refused. They had a few strong words, and behold, the first team ministry ended in a fight. Unable to resolve their disagreement, they had to split up.
If we imagine the church was perfect in its infancy, we can get a pretty distorted image of the church in its reality at its beginning. When we idealize our history and make it sound so perfect, we erroneously conclude that the church today has wandered so far from its ideal as to be nothing like it “should” be! And because it is not as it “should” be, it is OK to leave it! If you do not know of the other early church snapshots, you might be tempted to be critical and even bitter about the weaknesses of the church today. I believe those who leave the church because it is “not like it used to be” simply do not know how the church “used to be!”
The church, because it is made up of sinners like us, will always be “semper reformanda,” “always in need of reform.” It is so tempting to think that the responsibility for “cleaning up the church” belongs to “somebody else,” when in fact we are all responsible for cleaning it up because we are all responsible for its weaknesses! Looking at our problems as a church today, I don’t blame those who have stayed, as much as I blame those who have left it for others to clean up and who criticize it from afar!
When
it comes to fidelity to the Church in the rough times, as I mentioned at a
recent Mass here, one of my heroes in this area is Father Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin, a French Jesuit and a scientist (who, by the way, died yesterday in 1955). Because of his new ideas, he was
silenced by Rome in 1926. He was urged by many to leave, not only the Jesuits,
but also the Church. He decided rather to "go on to the end and with a
smile if possible." Why? He said, "When I took my vows, I committed
myself. To break them would be an offense against honor." "One must
work from within," he said. "Those who leave no longer have any
influence."
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