What was up with today's first reading? (communism)

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First reading Acts 4:32-35 ©
The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul
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.
The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and they were all given great respect.
None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from them, to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any members who might be in need.

Does this mean we should live like this today? I doubt it, but why not?
 
Believers should. The world can not. And trying to force it will just lead to disaster.
 
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I’m no expert on this, but seeing as how the thread has Communism in parenthesis, I just want to put in my two cents on that part. The Christians chose to live this way, the government did not force them.
 
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right, so should we choose to live that way? because i’m totally against this as a land owner. i make my livelihood through charging my tenants rent
 
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Sure, it’s in Jesus’ own words too. “If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.” - Lk 6:34
 
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but that doesn’t mean that one can’t charge people rent or can’t loan money with an expected interest. if that’s true then banks are immoral (and we know they aren’t so…)
 
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My personal opinion is as long as you don’t screw your tenants over and you’re a just landlord, there’s nothing wrong with charging rent.
 
They are immoral. It’s the teaching against usury (interest). It goes to show how broken the world is without the Church influencing it. This is relatively recent. Even Muslims forbid usury and are shaming us at this.
 
the teaching against usury is against unreasonably high interest, not against interest per se.
 
and btw, my family is from iran. they charge interest there too so idk why you think the muslims are shaming us. it’s a myth that they don’t charge interest
 
Not in the biblical sense. Even the Old Testament (although the Jews were allowed to charge interest on Gentiles/outsiders… but Christians are called to something greater than mere racial exclusivity).
 
This is talking about how the first Christians lived and worked. They sold their property and goods, gave the proceeds to the Community Peter was running, and lived and worked together.

Read what happened to one couple who cheated the Holy Spirit and kept some money back.

Now we are not sola Scripture People. We have Sacred Scripture and Sacred tradition.

But Jesus said, leave everything and follow me. He said to the rich man. Sell everything and follow me.
 
Maybe it’s a difference between Shia and Sunni? Even ISIS had strict usury laws.

Sadly, one of Osama’s “demands” after he attacked on 9/11 was that we give up usury. Scary stuff.
 
it’s ridiculous to say that it’s a sin to charge someone interest when you’ve given them a loan. otherwise, there’s no incentive to pay the lender back the money
 
There’s still laws and contracts. Besides, you can charge for services and fees. Just not compounding interest, so to speak.
 
I wish not to guilt you personally. I’m just trying to give context to this. I’ll leave it up to you to figure it out 🙂
 
i’ve never charged interest on interest, so i don’t need to worry
 
The thing that struck me hearing the reading at Mass in a Benedictine monastery is that it was a pretty decent description of how… a Benedictine monastery works, including a prospective monk selling off his goods before entering.

No we are not expected to live that way. Unless we enter a Benedictine monastery (or Cistercian, or Carthusian or most other religious orders).
 
it’s not feasible for all to live like that today, especially if you have a lot of children
 
You just wait, there will be those that tell you that you should give away your property to those who dont own property.
 
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