B: 2nd Sun of Easter (11 Apr 2021) - ATTENTION TO THE LEAST OF THE SOCIETY (Acts 4:32-35)

“The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in common” (Acts 4:32).

This is Luke’s description of the community that was formed after Peter’s great sermon on Pentecost day that converted right away some three thousand people into the Jesus-movement (Acts 2:41). The crowd that was gathered in Jerusalem heard his witnessing of Jesus’s sacrificial love and offer of hope of salvation for all: “Every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.... For the promise is made to you and your children and to all those far off.... Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (vv. 38-40). This message enjoined them to sell their properties, leave their hometowns behind, and begin a life of discipleship to Jesus (vv. 42-47). Knowing that Jesus’s apostles were going to take care of their physical needs, they readily offered everything they had for the common use: “they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need” (v. 45). This new community would be known to advocate a care for everyone, including the least of the society.

If we look at the resurrection appearances of Jesus in all the gospel accounts, we can similarly find Jesus’s special attention to the least of the society. In the liturgical readings, for example, in the Easter Octave, we read that Jesus elected to appear first to select women rather than men of his inner circle. In the gospel of Mark (reading last Easter Sunday), the first ones who discovered the Resurrection event include “Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome” who “bought spices so that they might go and anoint [Jesus]” (Mk 16:1). In the gospel of Matthew (reading last Easter Monday), the Resurrection message was delivered to some women who went to the tomb the morning after the Sabbath; they were Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (Mt. 28:1). In the Gospel of John (reading last Easter Tuesday), Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdala, after Simon Peter and the beloved disciple left her at the empty tomb. The evangelist Luke, meanwhile, identifies three women as the first bearers of the news of the resurrection, viz., “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James” (Lk 24:10). The gospels are unison that Jesus appeared to, or at least chose to inform, some women. Indeed, in a patriarchal society in Roman times that would not give much credence to the testimonies of women since they were considered among the least in the society, the evangelists revise this convention by emphasizing their role in evangelization and in the rise of the Jesus-movement.

Jesus’s decision to relay the message of his resurrection to the least of the society may have also inspired his disciples to do the same at the inauguration of their mission. By living in common with everybody—undermining divisions of age, gender, ethnicity, profession, class—they were witnessing to the first fruits of the resurrection, i.e., a message of hope and love that the cross can be won by a reliance on God’s power and providential care. Indeed, they enacted this cause by beginning to give a special attention to the least of the society by giving them a place they can call a home ... where they can belong to, they do not feel marginalized, they are equal with everybody else, and they are treated with respect, dignity, and love.

We, thus, continue to pray that the leaders of our civic communities will live the same values especially in these trying times. May a special attention be always given to the least of our society, not because they are the most important, but because they need most any form of assistance, having suffered much already in their lives.

- Rex Fortes, CM