The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.”
—Matthew 18:15
It can be easy for us to look back on the stories found in the gospels and imagine that those women and men surrounding Jesus were ideal disciples, living in perfect harmony with one another. However, when we read the Acts of the Apostles or the letters of Saint Paul, we soon recognize that this idyllic community was never really a reality. From its earliest days, the Church experienced divisions, disagreements, and dis-ease, as members tried to figure out how to live out the teachings of Jesus individually and as a community of believers. In fact, many of the difficulties we experience in our parishes or religious communities today are the same sorts of challenges faced by those first generations of Christians.
This Sunday’s Gospel—which is taken from chapter 18 of the Gospel of Matthew—comes out of a community’s real experiences of tension and the need for correction and forgiveness.
Matthew’s gospel was composed sometime around the year 85. By that time, the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed (marking the beginning of a new era for the early Christian community) and the Gospel of Mark and certain oral traditions about Jesus and his first followers had already been circulating for years. All of this means that Matthew’s community was, most likely, a more mature group of Christians who had worked through personality conflicts, the failings of members, theological disputes, as well as scandal and persecution. In the passage proclaimed this Sunday, we discover that Jesus has no illusions about the challenges of life within the Church, because he knows, to put it simply, his followers don’t always get it right. And so, as Pope Francis has summarized it, this Sunday’s Gospel “presents the theme of brotherly correction within the community of believers: that is, how I must correct another Christian when they do what is not good” (Angelus, September 7, 2014).
With all of this in mind, we find two points worth considering. The first is the very real understanding that conflicts will arise within communities. Although we Christians are called to live out our commitment to Jesus in dynamic ways, we don’t always make the choices we should, and we know too well how much sin and self-interest can erode relationships. The second point is that reconciliation is not an option. Moreover, Jesus reminds us that the community has an integral part to play in promoting healing and forgiveness. This commitment to reconciliation and building bridges is fundamental for the health and wellbeing of the community and is non-negotiable for Christians.
This Sunday’s Gospel also reminds us that the move toward reconciliation has to come from the person who has been wounded. As we know from life, it’s very rare that an offender starts the process of forgiveness. Jesus asks us to approach the person who caused the hurt with humility and honesty and to try to work for healing. This is essential, because there can never be healing if we allow a wound to fester or hold on to a grudge. If our effort to correct our sister or brother doesn’t work, Jesus then tells us to seek the support of other members of the community—first, one or two wise individuals and then, if necessary, to the whole community.
Reflecting on this, Scripture scholar Diane Bergant, CSA, observes:
The importance of the community in this process of reconciliation is apparent in two important ways. First, it is the entire band of disciples, not merely its leader, that exercises disciplinary power within the community. They are the ones who do the binding and the loosing (cf. Matthew 18:18). Second, Jesus declares that any agreement arrived at by two members of this band will be heard. He is not talking about prayer in general but prayer for guidance in coming to a decision that will affect community well-being. A similar idea is found in early Jewish writings: “If two sit together and the words of the Law [are] between them, the divine Presence (the Shekinah) rests between them” (Mishnah Aboth, 3:2). By means of this statement Jesus promises to be present in his Church if the members turn to him for guidance.
—From Preaching the New Lectionary, Year A
This is a beautiful call and vision, but what if the offending person still refuses to change or to be reconciled? In this case, Jesus instructs, we are to treat the offender as “a Gentile or tax collector.” Although this final instruction might seem to be giving us permission to politely dismiss the person, we must always look to Jesus’ own actions: “Gentiles and tax collectors” were the same people that Jesus befriended and broke bread with (cf. Matthew 8:5-13, 9:9-13, 15:21-28). It may be, as Barbara Reid, O.P., observes in Abiding Word, “that Jesus is asking us to be willing to sit and break bread together, even when we have irreconcilable differences.” Ours is never to dismiss anyone, but to entrust them to God, trusting that God is able to show greater love and forgiveness that any one of us ever will. And here, Pope Francis reminds us of what is at stake in this essential work:
To “take the first step” is, above all, to go out and meet others with Christ the Lord. And he always asks us to take a determined and sure step towards our brothers and sisters, and to renounce our claim to be forgiven without showing forgiveness, to be loved without showing love… Only if we help to untie the knots of violence, will we unravel the complex threads of disagreements. We are asked to take the step of meeting with our brothers and sisters, and to risk a correction that does not want to expel but to integrate. And we are asked to be charitably firm in that which is not negotiable. In short, the demand is to build peace, “speaking not with the tongue but with hands and works” (Saint Peter Claver), and to lift up our eyes to heaven together. The Lord is able to untangle that which seems impossible to us; he has promised to accompany us to the end of time and will not allow our efforts to come to nothing.
The liturgy this Sunday is calling us to reflect on the need for accountability and reconciliation within the communion of the Church. Are we aware of differences of opinion, misunderstandings, and real hurts within our families, parishes, and communities? If so, then we have act, lest bitterness lead to division. It isn’t enough to simply talk about reconciliation and healing, we must do the hard work of forgiving, which, for disciples of Jesus, is just one aspect of taking up one’s cross and imitating Jesus himself. The goal here is not simply that the offender be reformed or converted. Rather, this also becomes an opportunity for our own healing and renewal for the sake of the Gospel and the good of the communion of believers.
God of might, giver of every good gift,
put into our hearts the love of your name,
so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,
you may nurture in us what is good
and, by your watchful care,
keep safe what you have nurtured.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
