Brotherly Love
Twenty-third Sunday - A
Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13: 8-10; Matthew 18: 15-20
Today's Liturgy of the Word focuses our attention on the Church. We are the people of God and Christ's disciples. Jesus gave us the new commandment, “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34) and so we should "owe no one anything, except to love each other" (Rom. 13:8). One expression of this love is a fraternal correction.
Love desires good for our neighbor, and from the perspective of faith, eternal salvation is the greatest good (1 Pet. 1:9). When St. Faustyna wanted to give up her mission of proclaiming God's mercy, God told her that on the day of judgment He would demand from her a great number of souls (Diary, 52). God puts on our shoulders care for the salvation of our neighbor from which we cannot dispense ourselves. If we do not warn the sinners of the consequences of their wrongdoing, God will hold us responsible for their death (Ezek. 33:8).
The first sentence of today's Gospel is preserved in two versions: (1) "if your brother sins against you" and (2) "if your brother sins" (Matt. 18:15). The second version widens the circle of our responsibility. In the community of Corinth, there was someone who committed a grave sin. Although he did not sin against Saint Paul, the apostle was not indifferent to that sin. On the contrary, he criticized the community for tolerating such sinful conduct and having the authority of binding and loosing pronounced severe judgment on that brother (1 Cor. 5:1-5; cf. Matt. 18:18).
Although we have been called to holiness (1 Pet. 1:16; 1 Thess. 4: 3), our experience teaches us that we are easier influenced by sin than by virtue. St. Paul compares a sinner to "a little leaven [that] leavens the whole lump" (1 Cor. 5:6). Therefore it is extremely important to care for the sanctity of the Church's community. The Gospel of Matthew outlines a four-step process of warning a member of the Church who sins: one-on-one encounter; in the presence of witnesses, informing the whole community and finally a decision to exclude such person from the community (Matt. 18:15-17).
"Do not harden your hearts" (Ps. 95:8). Today's responsorial psalm contains a lesson from the past. During a forty-year journey through the desert, even though they constantly saw the great works of God’s providence, the nation put Him many times to the test. Because of their sinful conduct, none of those who came out of Egypt - except Joshua and Caleb - reached the promised land (Ps. 95:8-11). The psalm is a warning against imitating their "evil, unbelieving heart" and "fall away from the living God"(Heb. 3:12).
What to do, when someone hardens his heart and is not willing to listen to the Church? "Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" (Matt. 18:17). This statement is interpreted differently. Some say that it means we are to adopt the attitude of Jesus who was perceived as "a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Luke 7:34). Since our admonition was not successful, perhaps preaching again the Gospel about God full of love and compassion will have an effect. Others think that the passage means that such a person should be avoided to make him ashamed of his sinful conduct (Rom. 16:17; 2 Thess. 3:14). In both cases, however, it has the same purpose: to lead the sinner to conversion.
What to do, however, when neither reprove nor preaching the Gospel helps? Pray. "Eternal Father, for the sake of Jesus' sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world" (the Chaplet of Divine Mercy). What the words cannot do, the prayer of the Church can do (Matt. 18:19-20). And prayer for the conversion of sinners is yet another expression of our deep love of neighbor that desires the grace of salvation for all people.