St. Luke near the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles wrote: “The community of believers was of one heart and mind.” The rest of the Book of Acts demonstrates a community which was NOT of one heart and mind. There were divisions between the different language groups. There was controversy over accepting Samaritans into the community. There were major disagreements about how gentiles, non-Jews, could come into the Church. Luke’s portrait, therefore, is an idealized picture of what those first Christians aspired to be. That is our story as well. Certainly our limitations and prejudices inhibits our ability to form that perfect unity the gospel calls for — but like those early believers we keep working at it and leave the rest in God’s hand.
