“Do not fix your heart on anything that passes away…One clear sign of detachment is genuinely not to consider anything as own’s own.” Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (1902-1975) in The Forge (New York: Scepter, 1988) 703.
In recent days we have been exploring attachment to God and detachment from things as a basis for generosity. Josemaría Escrivá gives us both an exhortation and a sign related to this. The exhortation is not to attach to anything that will pass away. That makes sense. The sign that we are on track is a non-possessive willingness to share. Sounds just like the early church.
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Acts 4:32-35
May God’s grace, which was so powerfully at work in the early church, be poured out on us and our congregations in abundance, so that our hearts remain fixed on Him and our hands open to those who are in need among us as we testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.