St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles portrays an idealized picture of the early Christians — they shared everything and everyone got along. He was not, of course, part of that community, but was reporting what he had heard fifty or more years after the events. Think about events of fifty years ago. The common wisdom you hear nowadays is that the nation is divided and polarized and things were better back in the day. That is viewing the past through a nostalgic haze since things fifty years ago were terrible. All of which says that there aren’t any “good old days” when things were better. This day is exactly the right time to live in peace and justice. These are the good old days.
