23rd Sunday In Ordinary Time Year A

Readings: Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, today we are all invited to become the agents of love, peace and unity in our families, society and in the world. St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians talks about the nature of love. He says, “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Cor 13:4-8)

Today’s reading explains one such nature of love: that is how one should participate in the life of our brothers and sisters, who might have done wrong to us. As members of the mystical body of Christ, we are not alone in the journey to attain our salvation. We journey along with others and thus it is our duty to take care of our brothers and sisters who struggle to keep up to the unity in the society by their unbecoming behaviours.

In the first reading, we see how the prophet Ezekiel is asked to be "watchman for the house of Israel.” He is obliged to warn Israel of their moral dangers.  If Ezekiel refrains from speaking God’s word to them, God will hold Ezekiel responsible for the death of the wicked people. In other words this reading clearly indicates to us, how each one becomes agents to achieve unity, peace and harmony in our families, society and in the world. In general the 18^th Chapter in Matthew’s gospel is a discourse on mutual relations within the Christian community and, especially, what to do when divisions arise.

To fulfil this moral responsibility of ours, today’s Gospel gives us the following three-fold methods of dealing with the persons: in the first stage, it is between the two people concerned. If it works Jesus says: "You have won back your brother." To win back is a Jewish technical term for conversion.

The second stage: if the offender refuses to listen to his "brother", then others should be brought in as confirming witnesses. It is a necessity, because the law says, "A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained.” (Deu 19: 15).  If neither of these two steps works and if he still refuses to listen, then he has the duty to report to the Church. The 'Church' here is understood as the local community because during the time of Jesus the term Church was not in use.

If you analyse these three methods that Jesus proposes: one could clearly see how anger is slowly being broken down. When you are angry you may be led to take a hasty decision but when you anger is broken, you are given more time to think about your decision and the wellbeing of the other, which will result in winning back your brothers and sisters in healthy relationship.

Here is an advice of a tribal leader to his members: “If you have quarrelled with a brother and you have decided to kill him,” he said, “first sit down, fill your pipe and smoke it. When you have finished smoking you will realise that death is a severe punishment for the mistake he has committed and you may decide to give a good whipping instead. Then you fill your pipe a second time and smoke it to the bottom. By then you feel that the lashes will be too much and instead some simple words of reproof would be sufficient. Then when the third time you have filled your pipe and smoked it to the finish, you will be better convinced that the better thing to do is, going to that brother and embrace him.

Dear friends, during this week, please set aside sometime for yourself, and find out, how you deal with the disputes you have between the members of your family, friends, relatives and work colleague? Please remember, love is our guiding force to achieve unity.

Wish you all a Happy Father’s Day celebration!

God bless