The community of believers was of one heart and mind…
The traditional preacher for the Papal Good Friday liturgical celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of the Holy Father, has, since 1980, been a kindly Franciscan Capuchin friar by the name of Raniero Cantalamessa. This past year in recognition for his long years of service, Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals, granting him the rare exception of not having to be ordained a Bishop to assume this dignity. He is one of the rare Cardinals who is not a Bishop!
In his powerful homily on Good Friday, the Cardinal simply arrayed in just his Capuchin habit and red skullcap of a Cardinal, inveighed against those who are ripping asunder the unity of the Body of Christ, the Church, from within. While it may be understandable that those enemies of the Gospel from without, continue to assail the counter values of the Church in the face of secularism, it is the enemies within that continue to bring scandal and wreak havoc on the credibility of the Church as she attempts to carry the message of her Savior to a waiting world.
Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostle, sets the scene of the Church that remains the ideal - The community of believers was of one heart and mind…The characteristic of the early Church that was a powerful draw for people who were hungering for meaning and purpose in their lives, was precisely the loving solidarity among the people of the Way – the earliest name for those who would later, in Antioch, be known as “Christians.”
It was this loving solidarity that enabled these early followers of Jesus to face the rejection and persecution that so characterized the early centuries of the Church. And, it was precisely this being of one heart and mind that witnessed the phenomenal growth of the Church in the earliest years of its existence.
The grace of being of one heart and mind within the family of believers gifts the Church with the Peace that the Risen Jesus greets his frightened and doubting followers in the familiar Gospel of today. The peace that emerges from reconciliation and forgiveness is the very gift that Jesus gives to his Body for all ages.
As we continue to rejoice in the hope and promise that the Easter Mysteries bring, let us renew in our own hearts and minds that great privilege it is for us to be bearers of peace and forgiveness to our sisters and brothers in the Body of Believers.
The community of believers was of one heart and mind…