The Bible Blueprint

Living as a vibrant Christian community

Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35

The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the Apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.

             I gotta tell ya, it’s very easy to be the pastor of Immaculate Conception Church.  Now, don’t go tell the Bishop because he’ll just give me more work to do.  But why is it so easy?  Well, there’s such a genuine sense of community here: people eagerly volunteer for things.  Just look at the crowd at daily Mass, we have enough players for TWO softball teams, lots of people helped bring food and spent the night when we had the sleepover for the homeless, our capital campaign is going great, and most importantly, people have signed up to bring meals for the priests every Saturday night.  Now, if we could just get backrubs every Sunday night, everything would be perfect!

            This utopian society is very close to how the early Christians lived.  Listen to the description in the first reading: “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.”  The early Christians displayed a vibrant community life because they deeply cared about each other, and especially helped the poor in their midst.  I don’t know if the apostles got backrubs, but I bet it was easy to serve a community like that.

            As wonderful as all this is, however, we still have more work to do.  The Pew Research Center says that only 30 percent of Catholics attend weekly Sunday Mass. 

How many young Catholics who go off to college stop going to Mass – maybe members of your own families?  Scott Hahn once said, “The largest single Christian denomination in the United States is Roman Catholic.  The second largest is “ex-Catholics.”  So, now is not the time to sit back and rest on our laurels.  We must develop a specific and sustained strategy to welcome Catholics home, and attract non-Catholics.  That seems to me what Pope Francis’ master plan is: if we love each other, and especially if we love the poor, people will flock to the Catholic Church.  So far, his plan is working like a charm.

            The Bible gives us a blueprint on how to be a thriving Christian community.  Immaculate Conception is doing a lot of things right, but we still have a long way to go.  Maybe we could start with those backrubs next?

            Praised be Jesus Christ!