All Things in Common

Each Tuesday afternoon, FMS volunteers leave around 12:30PM from their ministry sites and engage in a formation session. One of our first formation sessions was with an early Church professor from Georgetown, Msgr. Wadsworth. He knows nine languages, and it was a real joy to get to learn from him and all he knows about the early Church! 

One of the aspects of the Church I am most interested in is its early roots. I had the opportunity to ask him during our formation session if we know at all what the mass looked like in its early days, and if we have any documentation of how and where it was celebrated. He pointed us to the Acts of the Apostles, describing how many early Christians practiced in secret, in their homes, and in small communities. 

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.  They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

Reading this excerpt after the formation session, it did feel very similar to the structure of life at Casa San Salvador. In many ways, it feels like we are coming back to the roots of the early Church. We all get home from our ministry sites, pool our money together for our weekly grocery budget, and have evening prayer together in the chapel. 

Living together in intentional community has made these passages come to life for me in a new way. Recently, it has come alive to me in the concept of how the community at Casa is, in many ways, a small version of the larger human community we are all a part of. 

If one of us leaves a dish in the sink, it is not a big deal, but when all of us do it, the consequences quickly compound. I often think about this dynamic beyond the walls of our house, especially in the context of rapid climate change, millions of immigrants caught in legal limbo, and the other various tragedies we see each day on our news sources and first hand at our service sites. There are many mornings when I am rushing out the door and I am tempted to leave my dish for someone else to deal with later. Yet those small moments, and the perhaps silly example of a dish, invite a larger question: what do I owe the people with whom I share this community? 

Even beyond Casa San Salvador, what do I owe the larger human community, the vast family of beloved children of God? It feels a bit idealistic to write out these questions, but perhaps it is exactly the vision we are being called to recover right now.

Question for Reflection: How is your community similar to the early Church?