Friends
Peace be with you.
In 1967, television producer Sherwood Schwartz had an idea to create a show depicting a perfect socialist utopia. He envisioned a situation in which seven people from different walks of life were forced to exist with one another. They all just happened to be on a three hour tour that got involved in bad weather and blown onto a deserted island. I’m, of course, talking about the television show Gilligan’s Island. You’ve probably never considered that this silly show was an attempt to put forward a vision of socialism. But think about it. Despite coming from very different walks of life, the members of the group are forced to form a community that shares all things in common. Pretty much everyone but the intellectual professor are kind of dimwitted individuals. In particular, the ultra rich millionaire and his wife don’t contribute anything to the community other than forcing the laborers to serve them. It’s kind of amazing they didn’t have a Bernie Sanders type of politician at some point lecturing them about how “the economy is rigged!”
In our first reading, we heard a passage that is often used by the more progressive side of the church to push a socialist agenda. They use it to say that the church in its origins was really socialist. And, if you read it, it certainly sounds like that. The believers shared all their property and there were no needy people among them. They sold all their property and put it at the feet of the apostles who would distribute to people according to their need.
The stark difference, though, between socialism and what is happening in the first reading has to do with the rationale. Socialism is a form of government with the goal of organizing society. It’s utopian in nature because, just as the word utopian means “No land” or Nowhere, so there’s never been a functioning society organized along socialist principles. It would take perfect people leading a perfect life. Instead, socialism almost always leaves a vacuum in leadership that is filled by a dictator.
In contrast to socialism, in the first reading, the people who have had a direct experience of Jesus Christ realize that nothing is more important than him. They willingly give up everything because Jesus is the only thing they cannot do without. They are even willing to give up their houses because it’s just another thing that will distract them from focusing entirely on Jesus. They deeply understood what St. John was talking about in the second reading for today’s Mass in that, by believing in Jesus, they are begotten of God. They want to be children of God so they are following his commandments. They see everything they have as coming from the Father and, therefore, belonging to him.
As I said at the beginning, the more progressive members of the church will criticize capitalism using this passage. However, I’d like to suggest that 2000 years of experience and growth has taught us some important truths. First, we seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness not an earthly kingdom. We don’t have a preferred form of government, just some that are worse than others. Socialism tends to be worse because of the power vacuum that gets filled all too easily with dictators. There’s a reason that, just before Hitler’s form of socialism moved into Poland before being kicked out in favor of the Soviet Socialist Republics’ form of Socialism, St. Faustina gave the Church the celebration we have today, Divine Mercy Sunday, as a sign of hope. If we go to confession, receive communion, and pray the Chaplet, we get special graces that give us hope in difficult times.
Another thing we learned in the last two thousand years is that Jesus is worth giving things up but we can also have personal property. The two aren’t necessarily contradictory. Lastly, while it’s important to be charitable to the poor and people struggling with brain health, rich people can be selfish or charitable just like poor people can be selfish or charitable.
The real challenge that this passage should offer us is that they gave up all they had because they saw Jesus everywhere. We, instead, tend to miss him like St. Thomas did on Easter Sunday. The challenge to us is if we can see him and believe him in the Eucharist and in the neighbor we serve.
