Life in the Holy Spirit
An Empowerment Bible Study
using the readings from Catholic Daily Mass
for the Season of Easter
(any year)
© 2003 by Terry A. Modica |
|
Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter
Experiencing the Spirit of Communion
Acts 4:32-37 shows us what true Christian community is like. Why don't we experience such generous love today within the Church?
We've become very individualistic in our worship. Historically speaking, it started when the people's language evolved beyond Latin and they could no longer understand what was going on during Mass. The laity began praying the Rosary and other devotions privately to connect with God while the priest did his liturgical stuff. In some of the larger churches, every side altar had a priest saying his own Mass simultaneously! Everyone came together to worship the Lord, but the sense of being a community had been lost.
Community and generosity are closely linked. The generous spirit that the early Christians had is a natural outgrowth of first noticing a need in someone else and then caring enough to get involved. What they did wasn't all that amazing. When they sold their property to help others, they didn't make themselves homeless; they distributed what they could according to what was needed. We don't even know what our fellow parishioners need! We certainly don't feel connected to them enough to make sacrifices for them.
Generosity grows from love. The more we love someone, the more generous we like to be. Look again at how the first Christians related to one another. See how they were of "one heart and one mind". This doesn't mean they always agreed on everything, because they didn't. Their unity came from caring about each other. Their caring came from worshipping in a true spirit of community and continuing the interaction outside of Mass.
In John 3:7-15, Jesus tells us that to understand the things of heaven, we have to be "begotten of the Holy Spirit". It's one thing to know Jesus personally, but God wants more than that for us, because heaven is so much more. Remember that on Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended upon a community -- upon a group of people whose lives were intertwined.
Generosity is a sign of a vibrant, healthy community. In heaven, love is everywhere. We call this the communion of saints. Yet we think of "communion" as a private experience of receiving the Eucharist. It's not! It's a coming together, becoming one in community through Christ. We walk up to the minister of the Eucharist as individuals ("Lord, I am not worthy....") and we return to our pews as a community, i.e., the communion of saints (which is why we're supposed to join together in singing the communion song).
In heaven, we will care about everyone equally and we will be loved fully by everyone. On earth, we cannot attain this love unless we rely on the Spirit of God within us -- the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Communion.
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© 2003 by Terry Ann Modica
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