Fr. Marcel’s Bulletin Message for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Today’s first and second scriptural readings and the gospel are among those passages in the Bible that are so relevant and practical in our lives today as they were thousands of years ago when they were first written. They remind us that as faithful children of the light, it is our duty and responsibility to reach out to those who have hurt us, to those who are not so faithful, and to those who have walked away from our Christian community and bring them back to our fold. And the three readings even recommended practical steps on how to accomplish this.

A story is told of a young lady, Lucy, who strayed from the church as a teenager. After nine years of trying atheism, spiritism, and new age, she found her way back again to the church, by the grace of God. Now while narrating the story of her escapades, Lucy said that what hurt her deeply in all her nine years of spiritual exile is that nobody in her church missed her. She said nobody ever called her on the phone to know what is wrong with her or visited to find out why she stopped coming to church. She said, “Of course the indifference and the silence of all the people in my church gave me the impression that the church does not want me.” The church needs everybody including the likes of Lucy. But what are we doing to help the many men and women in Lucy’s situation to find their way back into the church, particularly into our parish?

Jesus says today “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one” (Matthew 18:15). Simply put, those who are spiritually stronger (the offended party) should take the initiative to reach out to those who are spiritually weak (the offending and erring member). What is at stake is how to bring an erring member back into the fold, to full reconciliation and communion with God and with us. The motivation for this kind of Christian action is to “regain” your brother or sister, to restore the broken relationship, not primarily to denounce or find out who is right or wrong.

In today’s gospel taken from Matthew 18:15-20, our sweet Jesus recommends a procedure in three stages: (1) Approach the defaulting brother or sister person-to-person. (2) Go a second time accompanied by one or two trusted companions. (3) Bring the case before the local church. This may sound like a daunting procedure, but the good news is that in nine cases out of ten, we may never need to go beyond the first stage. An erring member approached in a personal and courteous manner is happy to come back without much argument.

The reason for fraternal correction is manifested in the second reading taken from Romans 13:8-10 Brothers and sisters, owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another, for one who loves another has fulfilled the law…You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. To those we love, we correct fraternally. To those we love, we tolerate. To those we love, we are patient with. To those we love, we reach out in love. Where there is love, there is God and fraternal correction. The commandment to correct a brother or a sister who offended us can only be obeyed where there is love. After all the Peter 4:8 says that Love covers multitude of sins.