Human Dignity & the Community

Title: Human Dignity & the Community

Date: April 12, 1988 - Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

Readings: Acts 4:32-37 / Psalm 93:1,1-2,5 / John 3:7-15

In the news these days there is much which is troubling at home and abroad. Overseas violence seems as if it is at an all-time high and as usual the innocent are the greatest victims. Having said this, I must admit that there is much which lightens my heart about the Soviets. Reforms which we have mistrusted are proving themselves legitimate. Now the news is that they are planning to leave Afghanistan. I mention the Soviets this morning because many believe that communism began simply in the mind of Marx. However, various forms of sharing property in common go back much further. We find it in various religious communities and even elements of it in the New Testament. Indeed, the words from Acts strike us as drastic and revolutionary: "The community of believers were of one heart and one mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common."

Now don't worry, I am not saying that the Gospel message supports Marxism. It does not. There are important aspects that make it quite different from either Capitalism or Communism. Notice, the passage makes a point of stressing that they are all believers and of one mind and heart. Could we say that about the systems we see around us today? No. Even the Holy Father recently offered criticism of both systems, although he would have to admit that individual freedom and the rights of the Church have been more safeguarded in the West than in the East. The Christian correction is that the human person is much more than a factor in the means of production and possesses a precious and irreplaceable dignity. That is why many would sell all they have in order to take care of the unproductive, the poor, those who were counted as nothing by the rest of society. As Christians, our dignity is further elevated by what Jesus explains to Nicodemus, baptism. In this great sacrament we are reborn and become temples of the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead.

If we are only interested in profit and the Soviets only in conquest, then we would both do well to accept the Gospel and reform our lives. We need to trust Jesus about both earthly things and about the things of heaven. Atheism has no part in understanding the real picture of the world. Our greatest gain and fulfillment is to recognize our incompleteness without God and to plead with him to satisfy our longing to be joined to him. We all need to be born again, to turn away from earthly desires which leave God out, and to surrender ourselves into the hands of a God who loves us more than we can ever know.