TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

23RD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A: (Ezekiel 33:1,7-9; Rom 13:8-10; Math 18:15-20)
Theme: We are called not to lose our brothers but earn them with love and fraternal correction

Reflection:

- After the great figure of Peter who has exposed both of his complexes of characters and attitudes – of profession of faith on the spiritual side and of blocking the mission of Jesus by rebuking him not to accept what is God’s will on the material side – we move on to completely separate aspect today;
- The church asks us to reflect today not only the spiritual side of our life which we have reflected last week – of the spiritual worship by offering our bodies as a living, holy and raised to God – but also to embrace the human life and human circle of community;
- In this way we are called to EARN for ourselves ‘not the whole world and all the treasures of the world’ (as we have seen in the Gospel of last Sunday) but to Earn our brothers and sisters;
- The only way we can construct or build up our community is by bringing back the lost members of the communion with the fraternity and with the mutual correction;

First Reading:

- Prophet is a guardian of the house of Israel:
o Through the mission and call of Ezekiel the Lord has made known the truth of the ‘identity of the prophet’ and that is to be a guardian: “I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel” (v.7);
o Being a sentinel is to be ‘custodian of the every member of the house of Israel’. It is the mission that the Lord has entrusted to the prophet for the reason that He never wanted even a single member of the community to be lost in their ways and in their mortality;
- Prophet has to speak the word of God for himself and also for the life of each individual:
o The responsibility of the prophet of ‘speaking of what come out of God’s mouth’ (v.7) has to be carried on even if the listener not in a position to accept it;
o The mission is to save the members who have gone away from the ways that are indicated and that are to be followed and to save ‘himself’ just because he is doing what he has received from the Lord as his command;
o This saving of the ‘self’ and ‘others’ has to take the prior lead in the life of every listener of God’s word, not only the prophet though it is his primary mission;
- Prophecy is for the construction and not for the destruction:
o Every prophecy is for the ‘building up’ of the house of Israel; in this ‘construction’ each word that is proclaimed and prophesied ‘serves as a brick’ and ‘accepting’ it as ‘cement’ which keeps the whole building as a ‘unity of all the members’.
o Every prophecy – keeping aside of its acceptance or rejected by the listeners – is directed towards giving the life; the word of God is life-giving; when God speaks man comes to life; this is the reason why the prophet has to admonish the unfaithful not to condemn them but to lead them into ‘conversion’ of the heart.
Second reading:

- Paul recalls the nature of love which stands as the fulfillment of all the laws and prescriptions;
- Therefore, love does not exclude all the possible rules and regulations and laws, instead it boosts the people to follow them with commitment for the betterment of the ‘individual person’ and also ‘the common good’ and all this is for the construction of the ‘loving community’ in which each one lives not only for himself but for others;
- Living for others is the highest value that is implied in the virtue of love: therefore, ultimately love realizes its finality by helping the people to follow the norms of life which will keep them and lead them to the better life and also by constructing the ‘community of fraternity’ to which we are called to be the members;

Gospel:

- Text should be read in the Context:
o The primary requirement for understanding of the text is to keep in mind where we are:
 We are in the Gospel of Mathew and we have to keep always what is the content and context of the Evangelist;
 Mathew writes to the Jewish community which has come to believe in the Good News of Jesus and he presents Jesus as the Promised Messiah of the Old Covenant who by his presence and mission completes and renovates the Old Law and immerses it in the New Law of God whom he calls Father;
 Since he is writing to the Jews he is particular in making discourses on the ‘unity of the Christ’s followers’ who stand upright even in the midst of the persecutions and insults created by the Jewish authorities;
o In the Jewish dominating background Mathew brings out the importance of ‘being together as the Christ’s disciples’: in this way he injects the four discourses of Jesus on the ‘aspect of the community’:
 First - The sermon on the mountain (Math chapters 5-6-7): Jesus speaks of the superiority of the New Law given by him on the Old Law which is not abolished but completed in the different manner and Mathew is keen to spell out the ‘community of Jesus’ is different from that of ‘Jews’ and the difference is seen in following Jesus with the New Law of love and mercy;
 Second – the discourse to the disciples and sending them in mission (Math 10: 1-42): Jesus explains the nature of the disciple and their mission to testify what they have seen and received to the people so that the ignorant are brought into the discipleship of Christ and thus form the ‘community of Jesus’.
 Third – the parables of the mystery of the Kingdom of God (Math chapter 13): Jesus’ main motive behind teaching to the people in the form of the parables itself is to ‘reveals the nature and effect of the kingdom of God’ which he has come to establish and to invite everyone into this kingdom; the believers and followers of Christ should ‘live and grow’ into the community which presents the kingdom of God to the world;
 Forth – the discourse on the communitarian life (Math chapter 18): Jesus brings forth a totally and radically different community which is placed as the paradox to the worldly and temporal community; the different is seen in the attitude of the brothers and sisters of the community, that is the church; this community that Jesus proposed and exposes underlines the incredible newness that it is the love of the ‘Father who is in heaven’ that has been infused into the relationships between the members of the community and in the particular way towards those who are ‘little in faith’ and towards those who are ‘away from the unity’ of the community;

- Particular context of the fourth discourse of Jesus in the chapter 18 of Mathew:
o The fourth discourse on the community life is divided into two parts:
 First: “Great and Small” (18:1-14): The community that Jesus inaugurates is of those who are ‘little and small’ in their attitude; this answer of Jesus to his disciples to be ‘least ones of the world’ comes in the discourse on the question ‘who is great in the kingdom of heaven’ (18:1) and Jesus, not using many words and without giving many lectures, takes a child and places him between them and just pointing him to them, asks them to be just like ‘this child’; ‘to be’ or ‘to become’ like the little children means ‘to be obediently and with the dependence available for the action of God’. Jesus proposes this community of small ones and insignificant ones and places it as the opposed and contrary society for the world; there is no question of greatness and there is no fight for the big post in the community that Jesus indicates; all are equal and all have the same position and finally all share the same life of the ‘Father who is in heaven’ (18:14);
 Second: “Pardon and restoration” (18:15-35): The community of Jesus is built up on the ‘reciprocal pardon and the bringing back of those who have gone away’ from the fraternal unity; Jesus proposes this type of society as his preferred and willed community because each and every individual member has to be not for himself but for others; in this community the principle of unity and binding force between the members is to be ‘at the correction of others and the restoration of the community’. Jesus concludes this discourse with the parable on the ‘importance and significance of forgiveness’ (18:21-35) proposing the only way for receiving the forgiveness of God and this as an answer for Peter and all those who are content and satisfied with the minimum fulfillment of the law of Moses which asks them to forgive one’s brother for seven times; We see also how the ‘servant who is granted the pardon is again punished because of his failure to share the pardon with others’. Again Jesus concludes with the participation in the life of the ‘Father who is in heaven’ (v.35).
o The Source and the fountain of this community is the ‘Father in Heaven’: whether the community that Jesus proposes is of the ‘small and little ones’ or of that in which there is ‘fraternal correction and forgiveness’, at the end, there is only One Family of the Father as its basis and foundation; we see this clearly when Jesus ends both of these two-but-integrated parts have as their ending reference not to the God who is in heaven but to the ‘Father who is in heaven’ (v.14 and v.35);

- The two pillars of the community of Jesus: fraternal correction and prayer
o Leaving aside the last part of the chapter eighteen, that is, the parable of the forgiveness, we go straight away analyzing today’s gospel reading which again has two significant parts:
 The fraternal correction
 The community prayer
 And both of them having the ‘ministry of forgiveness’ as the centre;
o Fraternal Correction: for the restoration of the community
 Jesus shows the three ways for the mutual correction of the ‘member’ who has done something wrong; the main purpose is the gain back/ earn back the lost and gone away;
 First is that of ‘personal contact’: it is the responsibility of the victim who has to go to the one who has hurt him and take the initiative of making him know what has been done and where went wrong and how to be corrected; this personal approach has a tremendous impact because the way that Jesus proposes is quite different: “if another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone” (v.15); it is not the normal way of ‘ignoring the situation’ and ‘developing the hatred’ for the enemy which is the norm of the world; in the community of Jesus it is always the victim who takes the first step to wake up from the ‘wrong done’ and has to go personally ‘to meet and to let the wrongdoer know’ the truth; there should be a friendly atmosphere and fraternal encouragement; more than advising the wrongdoer with words, “moving towards him in person taking the courageous step to be with him” itself is the biggest message of ‘fraternity’ that will make a positive impact on the person at wrong; this is not only a simple sermon from Jesus but he himself has done it from the cross to all those who have hurt him by crucifying him;
 Second is that of ‘eye witnesses or the friends circle’: the second way that Jesus proposes for the fraternal correction is to take him to the witnesses or the friends so that they also would mobilize him to ‘acknowledge his mistake’ and come back to their company: “But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses” (v. 16); in the personal contact or in the company of the friends it is not so much disguising for the reciprocal understanding and accepting the wrong that has been done and be corrected;
 Third and final resort is ‘to take the issue to the presence of the community’: “If the member refuses to listen to the, tell it to the church” (v.17). Finally the whole community has the responsibility to bring back the member who has committed a wrong; and therefore, the whole church has to work for the member to make him know the fault and acknowledge it to the community because the wrong that has done to the single individual, now has hurt the whole body of the community; therefore, there needs a fraternal correction on the level of the community;
 All this process of ‘three-step’ correction is to be always mutual; it is not for the exercise of the superiority on the part of the few; it is not humiliating the wrongdoer; nor it is for giving big lecturers by placing the wrongdoer on the accused zone; not even, finally, to leave him alone to his fate and wrongness; the correction is not possible and not authentic outside of the fraternity; the only purpose of this fraternal correction is: “TO GAIN BACK/ TO EARN BACK’ the member that has gone away and thus RESTORE THE COMMUNITY TO ITS FULLNESS AND PERFECTON;
o The community prayer: for the unity and sustaining of the Church
 Jesus dedicates the second part of the gospel passage today to the prayer and the prayer raised to the Father in Heaven;
 The prayer is not a task of the individual but in the Christ’s community it is the prayer that unites them; therefore, all the members should become ‘one voice’ and ‘one word’ and ‘one prayer’ and that’s what Jesus intends when he says: “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (v.19); it is the unity of the words and unity of the hearts that matter in the community prayers and this is the reason why ‘the community prayer is given so much importance in the Church’ and that why there are common prayers and community liturgy; there are no and there should not be any difference and disunity in the words we use in the prayers because only then it become ‘One Word’ and ‘One Church’.
 If the fraternal correction is for the restoration of the community, the prayer is for its ‘unification and sustaining’.
o Pardon and forgiveness: the central point for correction and prayer:
 When we observe the gospel reading today, between the two parts (18:15-17 and 18:19-20) there is another verse, the central verse 18:18 which holds them together and pushes them forward in their journey to restore and sustain the community and that is: ‘the mission of pardon and forgiveness’, “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”. Without this mission there is no fullness for the first part, that is, for the fraternal correction; and without this mission there is not meaning for the second part, that is, the community prayer;
 Jesus who has given this authority and obligation to forgive to Peter alone in the sixteenth chapter of Mathew which we have seen few weeks back, now extends this responsibility and mission (more than as an aspect of authority and obligation we have to look at this mission as a responsibility) to the whole community;


Conclusion:

- Our community should be after the model of ‘community of Mathew’
o We too have to be always ready to extend our willingness to forgive all those who do us wrong and we have to take the first step without waiting for them to realize their mistake and come back to us; the latter is done by the people of this world; we are the house of God and so we follow Christ who has forgiven his enemies even before they ask him pardon;
o We call God our Father and we are worthy of calling ‘OUR’ only when we are of ‘one heart and one spirit’ and with ‘one voice and word’; otherwise we only pretend to be the ‘community’ without knowing and living the authentic unity;

- We are called to earn/to restore our fraternity:
o With the mutual correction, placing ourselves too in the zone of acknowledgement, we have to call for the restoration of the member that has wronged;
o With the prayer, which is the ‘binding force’ of the community, we are called to raise up our voice to God with the one heart and one soul;

- We are accountable for the community:
o We are responsible not only the individual life but also for the community life; we have to take care and have interest for the common good and for the buildup of the fraternity;
o We have to give an account for every individual to whom we become a scandal or stumbling block by doing them wrong and thus putting them in trouble; we gesture of ours will be judges according to the justice;
o Finally, our Christian aim is to ‘create – sustain and restore’ the community in which we live and to which we belong;
- The only thing we have to do is:
o We should not loose anyone and anything of the community life;
o We have to EARN OUR BROTHER AND SISTER with the fraternal correction;