The believers, it says, had one soul and one heart (Acts 4:32). There were many souls, but their faith made them one. There were so many thousands of souls; they loved one another, and the many became one. They were on fire with the love of God, and from being a multitude they achieved a beautiful unity. If love made so many souls one soul, what love must there be in God, where there is no diversity but total equality?”(Augustine, De symbolo sermo ad catechumenos, 5; PL 40, 629.)See also his comparison of the Church to a group of people eagerly rushing toward a shrine: “They talk to one another, and, on fire individually, they make a single flame [incensi singillatim faciunt unam flammam], and the flame created by their conversation as they approach carries them on to the holy place, and their holy thoughts make them holy” (Augustine, Enar. in Ps 121, 2-4; PL 37:1619).

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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