23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 6, 2020

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Gospel: Matthew 18:15–20

Theme: Living together in Christ

Matthew 18:15–20

“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. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, [amen,] I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Music Meditations

Opening or Closing Prayer

Taken from The Eucharistic Prayer II for Masses of Reconciliation; quoted on A Poster for Peace in Memory of September 11, 2001, Liturgy Training Publications

Your Spirit changes our hearts:
enemies begin to speak to one another,
those who were estranged join hands in friendship,
and nations seek the way of peace together.
Your Spirit is at work
when understanding puts an end to strife,
when hatred is quenched by mercy,
and vengeance gives way to forgiveness.

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” (2008). A service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Matthew wrote his gospel around the years 80-85 C.E. Today’s passage is from chapter 18—this chapter is oriented towards the community of disciples. Preceding today’s passage Jesus has advised his followers that they are to protect the least in their community and, when necessary, they must go out to find any members who are lost or have drifted away. When Matthew wrote his gospel it had been a while since Jesus departed. At first Christians expected Jesus to return right away. When he hadn’t, the early church showed the strains of trying to hold themselves together over the long haul.

In the light of the problems his community was having Matthew had good reason to save the life-giving words we hear from Jesus today. Jesus wanted his followers to be a sign to the world of his ongoing presence in the early church. They were to live in a way that would show to others that, while they were waiting for Christ’s return, he was already with them. In Matthew the community was to be the kingdom of heaven already present on earth, and the life of the community and its individual members were to manifest and prove Christ’s presence with them. Jesus didn’t preach just to save individuals. Had he come just to do that, we could live our lives unencumbered by the stress and strain we experience trying to live as the “Christ-like” community we are called to be in the world.

While membership in the church offers us many blessings—a community of co-believers, support for members in stress, a place to celebrate the God Jesus reveals to us, etc.—nevertheless, even like-minded people go through times when they might prefer to drop out and make it on their own. It’s tempting, isn’t it, to ponder what it would be like not have to deal with community issues—to live our Christian lives by ourselves; pray our own prayers and do our best to help others—while we keep our eyes fixed on our “eternal reward?” That sounds nice and neat, doesn’t it? Especially these days of strain when: church attendance is declining; we have so much to put up in our local church communities, and on a larger, more public stage, we feel besieged by scandal and its coverage in the media. What’s wrong with trying to make it by ourselves and to teach our kids what we believe, so they grow up to be “good Christians?” Nothing, I suppose, but it “ain’t Christian!”

Jesus wanted us to continue as his community after he left: as a light on the lamp stand; a city built on a hilltop. In his lifetime he called his disciples together, instructed them and prepared them to continue his work. He assured them that he was with them, not only during his lifetime, but he would always be with them as they went forth to spread his name.

In Matthew’s gospel, from the very beginning, Jesus is named “Emanuel,” “God is with us” (1:23). The gospel ends with the same assurance of his on-going presence. When Jesus commissions his disciples to “make disciples of all the nations” (28:19), he lives up to his name, Emanuel, as he promises to “be with you always until the end of the world.” He clearly wanted us to be a community faithful to his memory. He didn’t want us to be stay-at-home individual believers, but Christians, worshiping together and then going out into the world living lives that proclaim his name to others.

And what better way for a community to be a beacon to Jesus than to practice forgiveness and concern for each other within the community? He wasn’t suggesting such virtues just to hold the community together until he returned. But, since forgiveness is such a rare commodity among individuals, communities, religions, tribes, races and nations, a community that is characterized by forgiveness would certainly be a way of announcing Jesus Christ to the world. If forgiveness were the hallmark of our religious community we would be what Jesus hoped for us—“a city built on a hilltop,” a “light to the nations.”

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • When I experience family conflict, how do I resolve it?
    When my friends and I are in conflict, how do I resolve it?
    When some members of my church community and I are in conflict, how do I resolve it?
    In my mind, are any of these “conflicts” truly only solved when people come around to my point of view?
  • Do we sometimes forget that to belong to the Church is to belong to a community of brothers and sisters in Christ? Why is this so?
  • Do we believe that our relationship to Christ depends intimately on how we relate to each other?
    To what extent do we believe that our behavior as individuals reflects on the overall witness that we as a community are called to give?
  • Do I feel that as a community we are responsible for each other’s well-being?
    What are some of the difficulties in achieving this?
  • Do I ever shirk my responsibility to speak up when I know something is not right?
  • When I confront a wrong or injustice do I approach the other in anger or in charity?
  • What are the effects of living in a culture that promotes gossip, scandal, and contemptuous dismissal of those with whom we do not agree?
    What are the effects of living in a culture that relies on legal arguments or intellectual evaluations—that focuses on winning rather than on relationship?
  • How difficult is to become involved in another’s life when we see them engage in cruel or self-destructive behaviors?
    Why, however, are some people all too ready to tell people what is the right way to do things or how to behave?
    How do we find the middle ground?
  • What is the role of personal prayer in dealing with problematic people?
  • Have I ever been part of a church community or another group that developed divisions over some issue or another?
    How did it get resolved?
    To what extent have I sought consensus, or did I work to make sure that my opinion carried the day?
  • What is the role of punishment in this passage?
    What is the role of reconciliation?
  • How do I feel about Excommunication?
    What is the possible danger of putting someone out of the community who does not agree with me? (think self-righteousness, vindictiveness, the cruelty of isolation, for example)
  • Which of the 4-part instruction on dealing with another’s behavior toward me did I have a problem with?
    What are some of the inherent dangers involved in taking others along to reprimand someone?
  • What is the value of having others to pray with?
  • In the letter of St Paul to the Romans in today’s reading he writes: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another, for the one who loves one another has fulfilled the law.” How does this apply to today’s gospel?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions

Adapted from “Sacred Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits.

Let us do an examination of conscience on love today.
Love is patient. Am I?
Love is kind. Am I?
Love is not boastful. Am I?
Love is not resentful. Am I?
Love does not harbor grudges. Do I?
Love does not judge. Do I?
Love does not rejoice in what is wrong. How do I understand this? Live it?
Love rejoices in the truth. Do I?
Love rejoices in the good fortune of others? Do I?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

From First Impressions, a Service of the Southern Dominican Province:

We sense from this passage and all of chapter 18, that the unity and faithful adherence to Jesus’ teachings are important values for Matthew. Christians are not to live as individuals, but as members of a witnessing and supportive community. When a member has been “sinned” against, others are there for support and to see that rights are wronged.

But what’s the spirit of today’s gospel? Is Jesus just talking about individual offenses and sins? Suppose a race is sinned against, what are we to do? Suppose the poor on the other side of town are being ignored or deprived of their needs and rights? Suppose a group in our parish is treated as second class members just because they are new arrivals? Suppose women’s voices are ignored? Or, the elderly patronized? Suppose young people never hear their lives or issues mentioned in the preaching and public worship? What can you do about it? And when will you start?

Poetic Reflection:

Have you ever met a person in your church who could be described the way Mary Oliver describes someone she knows in the following excerpt from a poem in her collection Thirst?

“On thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate”

7.
I know a man of such
mildness and kindness, it is trying to
change my life. He does not
preach, teach, but simply is. It is
astonishing, for he is Christ’s ambassador
truly, by rule and act. But, more,

he is kind with the sort of kindness that shines
out, but is resolute, not fooled. He has
eaten the dark hours and could also, I think,
soldier for God, riding out
under the storm clouds, against the world’s pride and unkindness
with both unassailable sweetness and consoling word.