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.