TWENTY THIRD
SUNDAY IN OT A 2020
We are a
church, an assembly of people gathered to do the work of God. This brings us together around the table of
the Lord in the mystery of the Eucharist, and then the Lord sends us out to
renew the face of the earth.
The task
that faces us in the world in these days of Covid-19 is awesome. And the only way we can succeed is by staying
together, with Jesus in our midst.
Please understand we need to stay together as the community of the
baptized and, yet, our love for one another calls us to be very mindful of the
importance of mask wearing and socially distancing. Even as we are socially distant from each
other, we still and always will be brothers and sisters to each with Jesus in
our midst. And the clear Gospel message
today is that part of being a community of disciples is that we as a community
must involve efforts to correct our faults.
The truth of
our lives is that we are all sinners. We
are capable of diminishing our community life.
At first
glance, today’s Gospel may look like a process to exclude the offending
party. “If your brother sins against
you, go and tell his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your
brother. If he does not listen, take one
or two witnesses 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.”
In today’s
reading, the entire community is given authority to hold its members to account
and rectify wrongful acts.
What is crucial is understanding today’s Gospel is the process
seeks not to exclude but to reconcile and restore the person to the
community. It is all about healing, forgiving,
and reconciling. Make no mistake about
who we are as the community of the baptized, our mission is healing, forgiving,
and reconciling.
The Gospel
is an instruction by Jesus to the disciples about, not confrontation exactly,
but about the sacredness of community.
The well-being of others – whether in your family, your workplace, your
parish community or wherever – becomes the reason for prophetically attending to
the faults of one of the community.
The message
is we are better together. We belong to
one another. We are brothers and sisters
to each other. We are the community of
the baptized. There is no way of
over-rating the importance of relationships and community. Yet, Jesus is very much aware of the frailty
among his disciples and future followers.
We need help in acknowledging our
faults and needed areas of improvement.
Now there is
an abundance of therapy and workshops in conflict resolutions and the skills of
mediation. You may consider that Matthew’s
Gospel may seem a little sketchy in resolving conflicts. However, on a deeper level, conflict resolutions
involve more than skill training in psycho-social skills. The message of today’s Gospel is that
reconciliation is a spiritual activity.
When our psycho-social skills are exercised from our spiritual center,
they become all they can be. When the Spirit enters listening skills, the
listening becomes deeper and more inclusive.
When the Spirit enters mediation skills, the skills become more
respectful. This presence of the
Spirit within the skills signals that the skills are being used for the purpose
of reconciliation.
This past
Wednesday, we had an all-day staff planning sessions with the staff both of St
Joseph’s and Holy Spirit. We are now a
joint staff. We are missioned to collaborate as a joint staff for the sake of
better serving and building our faith communities. As you might expect, changing the way we have
always done ministry encounters some resistance. Collaboration is hard work at times. Thus, it is essential and critical that our
listening and our dialoguing with each other be Spirit-filled. We become better listeners to each other when
we affirm the sacredness of our community life and the Gospel message calls us
to be a healing, forgiving and reconciling community.
As seen in
the Gospel, correcting the faults of another can be dangerous territory. When I am the person being criticized, it can
be devastating. And yet, if we are to
grow as a staff, if we are to grow as a faith community, if your family is
going to be enriched, criticism is important for our growth when the critique
is motivated out of care and concern and love.
We all have to acknowledge: Be
patient God isn’t finished with me yet.
Bishop
Matano writes: “The recent news of the
tragic death of Mr. Daniel Prude and the visible pain of his family cause a
deep sorrow in the hearts of all. We ask
ourselves how we can work together in solidarity for a more just society where
tensions are able to be reduced, where conflicts can be settled, where peace
prevails, and where life is sacred and reverenced? “
In affirming
the sacredness of community - in our
family life, in our Church life, in the streets of our cities, and in all ways
we come together with others -- we have to learn to forgive, we have to learn
to care, we have to learn that strangers are no longer strangers, that we are
brothers and sisters to each other.
What would
like for us as Americans if Democrats and Republicans committed themselves to
affirm the sacredness of our community life and sought to build up each
other? What would be like if on the
streets of our cities, instead of racial violence, we affirmed the dignity and
the sacredness of each other; what would
it like in our Church life, if we all prayed together the prayer of Jesus, that
they may be one in unity and love.
As we pay
attention to our inner journey, we become aware that the spirit of God’s love
and healing dwells deep in our hearts.
When we hear with the ears of our heart, we desire to share forgiveness
and reconciliation and healing with all people.
When we hear with the ears of our heart, there is no place for
pettiness, judgments, ill-will, prejudice, and hatred among us.
We can turn
to the second reading today and be very clear:
it is all about love. “Owe
nothing to anyone, except to love one another.
Have a
Blessed Day.
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