Reflection for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2009

As I reflected on today’s readings I was reminded of a story I read. During the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, in the midst of the murders, tortures and lootings, there were stories of extraordinary courage.  Here is one such story of a twenty four year old Kuwaiti by the name of Najeed Bastaki who was a member of the Kuwaiti resistance. As he told a reporter, the word resistance doesn’t mean he carried a gun and fought and killed. What he did mostly was to get food and money to families that needed it. He said that every week resistance workers would meet at a secret point and collect rice, sugar, butter and other food staples which would then be distributed to designated homes.  Each home that accepted a delivery was responsible for distributing the food to nine neighboring homes. In the midst of the horrors surrounding them, through sacrifice, generosity, and selfless service, the Kuwaitis became a community.

In the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about a community of believers being of one heart and mind.  We may find it hard to think that those who owned property or houses would sell them and then take the proceeds of the sale and use it for charitable deeds. Today it is about us together valuing the things that really matter. It is about letting the things we share shape us – like sharing our faith, sharing our fears, and sharing our forgiveness.

When we talk about sharing our faith, it is not what we know, or what we say. It is about putting what we believe into action each day. The early Christians had struggles and joys too. But they understood something that we can so easily forget in the culture we live in today. And that is, that faith is not a private or personal thing. Their faith was public and was to be lived with others, even if the community had problems. And today, we know we are not a perfect community, but what unites us is our faith which we express together in prayer, the Eucharist, and service to each other.

We are each very different. We have our likes and dislikes, our different interests and talents. When we talk about sharing our faith, we must also talk about sharing our fears.  It is about how our fears unite us to Jesus just like our faith unites us to Jesus. Our fears also have the power to divide us. Look at Jesus’ disciple Thomas in the gospel. His fear kept him away from the community of the disciples. He was afraid of the crowd, of what people might think. He may even been afraid that maybe Jesus would be angry because of his running away with the others.

The story reminds us that Jesus meets us wherever we are afraid. We have to know that so many of our disagreements, arguments and divisions have fear as the main cause. As a result, when we think about sharing forgiveness, we need to follow the example of Jesus. Jesus does not scold his friends for deserting him. Instead, he offers them forgiveness and peace. Then he really challenges them when he asks them to do the same for others.  True forgiveness is not just when someone has done something wrong, and must apologize. It is more than that. It is a certain way of living. By sharing our forgiveness, we not only seek healing when things go wrong, we must also be gentle and loving in the midst of it all.  

We cannot walk back to that image of the early church where all who believed were together and had all things in common. But in the steps that we take to get home today, we can make a promise that no matter where the journey leads us, no matter where we end up, our home is a community and will be a home where Jesus can be found because we have valued the things that really matter.

Reflection by Frances De Frange, SCNY Associate
(Frances De Frange, a wife, mother, and grandmother,
serves as Staten Island Regional Director for
the NY Archdiocesan Catechetical Office.)