Believers are those who are of one mind and body, know Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, and love God by keeping God’s commandments. Ask yourself the following questions in the spirit of exploring what faith means to you.

Let’s all go live in the early church! What a delightful community that was: the apostles as teachers, continual fervent prayer, and the meaningful breaking of bread. Awe came upon everyone, we are told; signs and wonders were commonplace. No one had more than they needed, and no one had less.

Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side.

Political campaigns often boil down to a few short sound bites, carefully edited and produced at tremendous cost by professionals who specialize in such a product. After a debate, a candidate’s professional staff works the room of reporters putting a positive spin on what their candidate said and how the debate was handled.

It was a highly unorthodox ritual to play out in the office. He asked his staff to stand in a circle around him. He then moved from one person to the next, called them by name, and said, “I grant you the authority to do your best work.”

If you want your children and grandchildren to grow up generous, let them watch you be generous. In the first reading this weekend we hear how the first Christians shared all they had, with the ultimate result that “there was no needy person among them.”

Let us pray for the love in which we follow and obey our God.

Doubt is the skeleton in the closet of faith, and I know no better way to treat a skeleton than to bring it into the open and expose it for what it is: not something to hide or fear, but a hard structure on which living tissue may grow.