Matthew 18, 15-20
Sunday, September 10th, 2023 (23 OT A)
At that time Jesus said to his disciples, “If your brother sins, correct him between the two of you alone. If he listens to you, you have saved your brother”.
How easy it is for us to judge any action of others, and when we do so we are putting ourselves in a superior position, above them, with reason and truth on our side. I would almost go so far as to say that, if we judge, we immediately condemn, though we may not express it, but we feel it.
In Jesus’ time and in the early Christian groups something like this must also have happened, so that Jesus clearly indicated to us what the position of the disciple should be: “If your brother sins, rebuke him alone. Call him to account so that he recognises his failure. But from humility, from love for his brother. Trying to win our brother over, without holding anything against him, without feeling superior. This is the only way to be a “brother”, to create community. If Jesus tells us to carry out fraternal correction, it is because, in some way, he considers us responsible for others. It is no good for a Christian to think that he should not meddle where he is not wanted, or not to want to complicate his life, which is much more comfortable. We cannot “pass by” others. We owe them a “debt of love”, as Saint Paul tells us. It is with them that we can and must pray in order to make Jesus present among us.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
How is your “debt of love”?
