We are the Church.

 

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY IN OT  A 2023

 

The mantra for our parish that is repeated with each celebration of the Eucharist is:  WE ARE THE CHURCH.  In the deepest sense, the building we are in is not the Church.  It is the building that houses the church.  The church is ourselves, the people of God, who gather to celebrate God’s presence in our midst.  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.

As a Church, the people of God, 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.  The heart of our spirituality is to be found in the love, the forgiveness, the healing, the kindness that we share with one another.

We are not just isolated individuals who come to Mass so that I can deepen my relationship with God.  We are a community of brothers and sisters who are called to make a difference in each other’s lives.  We live Eucharistic lives when we affirm, the God-given dignity of our neighbor.  We are to love one another, no exceptions,

The God we worship is a Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in relationship to one another.  The mystery of love that is found in God is also to be found in the Church in our relationships with each other.  There are millions of rules and regulations in our Church and in our society but the great commandment is love - love of God and love of neighbor.

Having said all this about the beauty and the value of our ourselves as the community of the baptized, the truth of our lives also means confessing that we are all sinners.  We can diminish our community life.

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. 

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.

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 over 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.

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.

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 person, 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 must acknowledge:  Be patient God isn’t finished with me yet.

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 must learn to forgive, we must 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.