One of the most difficult things we can do in human relationships is to correct another. In some ways it’s not so hard. When we find fault with another, we go and confront them. We are convinced the other person is wrong and we have right on our side. So, we go to it — challenge their wrongdoing, even if we have to raise our voice to get their attention. They, in turn, respond by raising their voices. Such encounters don’t do much to build relationships or community. But at the end of the exchange, just before walking off, we can say with a sense of satisfaction, “Well, don’t say I didn’t tell you!”
Another common way of dealing with someone’s offenses is to just not say anything. After all, why stir up conflict and hard feelings? While letting a wrong go may keep the silence and provide a superficial peace, it does nothing to help a relationship or a community grow. As in nature, icy conditions don’t provide a very good environment for new growth. It’s true in nature and very true among Christians, who hope to have a community that gives witness to Christ’s presence in our midst. Matthew wants the early church to realize we, the Christian community, have Christ at our center and his presence marks the church as a different to kind of human community.
Writing to the Romans, Paul is concerned, as Jesus was, about the internal life and witness of the Christian community. He lists the principal commandments that will reflect the life of the community–no adultery, murder, stealing or coveting. It’s not that he dismisses these as past or unimportant, but he then lays down the overarching commandment that will see to and cover all the rest. It’s the commandment Jesus used to sum up his teachings: love God and love neighbor. The love of God is manifested concretely, Paul says, by how we love our neighbor.
Paul tells us that we “owe” one another that love. If we act lovingly the rest will fall into place–no adultery, killing, stealing and coveting. These can ruin the bonds that hold us together; while love and its consequent actions, will build up the community. With love as our guiding light, we won’t have to worry about the do’s and don’ts; we will, as by second nature, know how to act towards others. Even when we have to admonish them, we will do so out of love,
Matthew is addressing the early community whose members are learning and struggling to be truly Christian in both faith and works. So, the evangelist guides them in an important issue for human and church relationships: the rehabilitation of an errant member.
Once again, several approaches are possible: call the person before the governing members, reprimand him/her and cast them out; send a “delegation” to confront them; send a letter listing the charges and challenge them to change their ways or else. But Jesus bases his approach on love for the delinquent. First of all, instead of pointing out to others a person’s sin and starting a chain of gossip, the individual observer is to go to the offender and talk to them privately encouraging them to change. If they do so, the breach is healed and there is the possibility of a deepening relationship with the former offender.
Jesus is a realist and knows that things don’t always go that smoothly. It may be necessary to try another process that involves more and then, still more members of the community. If the person still refuses to change, they are to be treated as a Gentile or tax collector–two groups of people who were shunned by their Jewish brothers and sisters.
Not so fast! Weren’t Gentiles and tax collectors the very outsiders Jesus welcomed to the table to eat and drink with his community? Following his example is there ever a time we should give up on the wayward members of our community? It’s hard to put limits if love is the guiding and over-arching source for our lives together.
We often quote, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, then I am in the midst of them.” We Christians apply this saying to any gathering of prayer or sharing, no matter how small the group. Rightly so. But the context for this quote puts a unique meaning to it. When two or three, out of love, go to a wandering sister or brother to convince them to change and return to the life of the community, then Christ assures us we are not on our own, that he has joined us as we go to the highways and byways to invite the alienated in.
The same context affects the well-known verse, “… if two or three agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them….” This is not to suggest a sure way of praying so as to get what we want — just get a few people with the same intention to pray together and they will get what they pray for. In today’s context, the two or three are praying for their brother or sister who has wronged the community. They must pray for them with the hope they can win them back. “Where two or three are gathered….”
You can see how important reconciliation was and is in the church. How can we attract others to the life we have found in Christ if we are divided among ourselves? And there certainly are signs of division in the church today! Why didn’t church members, especially leaders, confront clergy accused of sexual abuse of minors and challenge them and, when necessary, remove them from active ministry? Isn’t that one of the things today’s gospel requires? Wouldn’t that have been the loving and just thing to do for them and for their past and future victims? We seemed more concerned with the façade of church harmony than the reality of horrible crevices in our structure. Some of our leaders failed to fulfill the prophetic role Ezekiel names today, for they are supposed to be, “sentinels for the house of God.”
The teaching about correcting wandering and offending members in order to bring about reconciliation applies not just to those in official leadership. Two weeks ago we heard Christ give Peter the power to bind and loose. If we had stopped reading Matthew at that point we would just let those in charge act to correct and admonish. But we read today that the authority to bind is also given to the whole community. “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The community has been given great authority by Jesus. In our church we have had tension about how those who have authority exercise it over the faithful. But the members also have their authority, which is an essential sign of the Spirit’s presence in the baptized. As we know these two authorities can clash at times. They certainly do in our present church over such issues as, birth control, divorce, married clergy, women’s ordination, national and international policies, gays, etc.
Not to withdraw from those discussions, but we could still pray at today’s Eucharist for a resolution of conflicts through open dialogue and gestures of reconciliation among the disparate voices of individuals and groups, ordained and lay. If we try to be less confrontational and more guided by love, Jesus promises to be with us to guide and heal. No one says reconciliation is easy, especially when groups and individuals in the community have been at loggerheads for a long time. Still, Jesus promises that when the community agrees and comes together to pray for guidance he will be there to assist us.
Ezekiel names himself a watchman (sentinel) for the house of Israel. He was assigned, as a sentinel, to watch over God’s people, name approaching dangers from the outside and also correct the people when they didn’t live up to the covenant that God has made with them. Who are the “sentinels” you know?
I know a whole class of them in our church–our grandparents. They and older Catholics, watch out for and minister in the community. They are key members of parish outreach programs; take communion to the sick; gather food for the poor; are Eucharistic ministers and lectors; count the collection on Monday mornings; sing in the choir and on and on. They are also not afraid to speak up at parish meetings when they feel there is a need. They are complimentary to the preacher, but also not afraid to make a “suggestion or two for next time.”
Grandparents also play sentinel roles in their families, especially when they remind their children about their faith practices and the obligation to see to their grandchildren’s religious instruction and reception of the sacraments. Grandparents fulfill their Ezekiel-role as sentinels in God’s household. Or, they fulfill their roles as Jesus’ disciples when they go out to seek the wandering to bring them back home to the community.