September 10, 2023

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary time (A)

 

Care for Your Wounded Brother or Sister

 

Greeting

Jesus tells us today:
Where two are three have come together in my name,
there I am among them.
We are here in his name
and so he is among us.
May he always stay with you. R/ And also with you.

 

Introduction by the Celebrant

If we really are the Church, we are a community around Christ and we are brothers and sisters to one another. That means: we love one another, we accept and serve one another so much that we also have the courage to correct one another when our brother or sister errs. He or she is my concern because that person is my brother or sister. Let us pray with the Lord Jesus here among us that we may have that courage, and that our brothers or sisters may accept the help we offer to set them free.

 

Penitential Act

Do we love enough the Lord and one another,
and the community of the Lord,
to help one another when one goes astray?
Let us examine ourselves before the Lord.
                  (pause)
Lord Jesus, you hold us responsible
for a brother or sister who errs:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, you hold us responsible
for the unity and integrity of the Church:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you hold us responsible
for reconciliation not only in the Church
but even in the world at large:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
Make us aware of our own weakness
and give us the courage to help those who err.
Lead us all to everlasting life. R/ Amen

 

Opening Prayer

Let us pray to God our Father
that we may sustain one another on the way to him
                  (pause)
Lord God, our Father,
your Son Jesus Christ has brought us together
as a community of sinners who know
that you have pardoned us.
When our weaknesses threaten our unity,
remind us of our responsibility for one another.
Let your unifying Spirit give us the strength
to care for one another
and to do all we can to remain
a living, forgiving and welcoming community
where we keep meeting in the name of Jesus,
that he may be always with us,
now and for ever. R/ Amen.

 

First Reading (Ez 33:7-9): A Guard of One’s Brothers and Sisters

Like a watchman on the look-out for the enemy, the prophet must warn his people against evil and every Christian must warn his or her neighbor.

 

Second Reading (Rom 13:8-10): Love Sums Up All the Commandments

Love one another as you love yourself. If you do this, says St. Paul, you have fulfilled the law. For love is the motive and the spirit of all the commandments. 

Gospel (Mt 18:15-20): Help Those Who Err

A Christian sense of responsibility for one another demands that, with firmness yet love, we help those who err. If one does not succeed, let the community help, for the Church should be a place of reconciliation.

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him 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 others 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.
If he refuses to listen even to the church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
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.
Again, amen, I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.”

 Intercessions

Jesus tells us today: If two of you agree to ask something, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. So we pray together to our Father, and we say: R/ Lord we are certain you will hear us.

–   For the Church of Jesus Christ, that it may always be a place of reconciliation and the guardian of life and of all that is good; that its leaders too may always have the courage to call evil by its name, let us pray: R/ Lord, we are certain you will hear us.

–   For all those whom God has entrusted to one another: our Christian families, our towns and cities, people who work together, and all communities, that love may inspire us to deal with one another with frankness and honesty, let us pray: R/ Lord, we are certain you will hear us.

–   For all those who suffer from violence and injustice, from prejudice, discrimination and hatred, that they may not become bitter, and that the victims of these forms of violence may still be capable of forgiving wholeheartedly, let us pray: R/ Lord, we are certain you will hear us.

–   For us here in this community, that we may not condemn or write off one another but learn to bear each other’s shortcomings and to protect each other’s reputation, let us pray: R/ Lord, we are certain you will hear us.

God our Father, with your Son among us we pray: help us to believe in the goodness of each person and to be patient with one another, as you have been good to us through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

 

Prayer over the Gifts

God our Father,
you bring together at the table of your Son
the weak with the strong,
the sick with the healthy.
Let your Son fill us here
with the fullness of his presence,
that we may accept one another
and learn to live with each other.
We offer you our good will
and ask you for the strength
to welcome one another
in Christ Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.

 

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

We remember how the Father sent us Jesus his Son when, by committing sin, we had broken our friendship with God. Jesus shed his blood to bring us back to the Father. Let us thank God for his love.

 

Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer

With Jesus present in our midst,
we pray with him the prayer
which he taught us. R/ Our Father…

 

Prayer for Peace

Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles:
I leave you peace, my peace I give you.
Look not on your sins,
but on the faith of your Church,
and help us to not to tie our brothers and sisters
to their sins and past mistakes.
Grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom
where you live for ever and ever. R/ Amen.

The peace of the Lord be with you always. R/ And also with you.

Let us express now in our greeting of peace
how we want to be with one another
honest, forgiving and helping. R/ Amen.

 

Invitation to Communion

This is Jesus, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world
and who shed his blood on the cross for us.
Happy are we to be invited
to his meal of reconciling love. R/ Lord, I am not worthy…

 

Prayer after Communion

God our Father,
your Son has been in our midst
and he has strengthened us with his body and blood.
He made our wounds of sin his wounds
and healed them.
Let the wounds of our brothers and sisters
become ours, their joys our happiness.
Let your Son teach us the art
of bringing those who err back to you
and into our communities
without embittering or humiliating them,
without any feeling of superiority,
but simply because they are our brothers and sisters
and you have been good to us
in Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

 

Blessing

With Jesus among us,
at least when we are aware he is with us,
we can make our community
a place where we can speak freely to each other
and help those in trouble
to keep them in the community
or to win them back
and offer them new chances.
For we know that we are responsible for one another.
May God give us this openness and courage
and bless you all:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

May God be with you and keep you in his love.

 R/ Thanks be to God.

 

Reflection:

September 10

Twenty-third Sunday Year A

Matthew 18: 15-20

Brotherly Love

Today’s Liturgy of the Word focuses our attention on the Church. We are the people of God and Christ’s disciples. Jesus gave us the new commandment, “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34) and we should “owe no one any- thing, except to love each other” (Rom. 13:8). One expression of this love is fraternal correction.

Love desires good for our neighbor, and from the perspective of faith, eternal salvation is the greatest good (1 Pet. 1:9). When St. Faustynawanted to give up her mission of proclaiming God’s mercy, God told her that on the day of judgment, He would demand from her a great number of souls (Diary, 52). God puts on our shoulders care for the salvation of our neighbor from which we cannot dispense ourselves. If we do not warn the sinners of the consequences of their wrongdoing, God will hold us responsible for their deaths (Ezek. 33:8).

The first sentence of today’s Gospel is preserved in two versions: (1) “if your brother sins against you” and (2) “if your brother sins” (Matt. 18:15). The second version widens the circle of our responsibility. In the community of Corinth, there was someone who committed a grave sin. Although he did not sin against Saint Paul, the apostle was not indifferent to that sin. On the contrary, he criticized the community for tolerating such sinful conduct and having the authority of binding and losing pronounced severe judgment on that brother (1 Cor. 5:1-5; cf. Matt. 18:18).

Although we have been called to holiness (1 Pet. 1:16; 1 Thess. 4: 3),our experience teaches us that we are easier influenced by sin than by virtue. St. Paul com- pares a sinner to “a little leaven that leavens the wholelump” (1 Cor. 5:6). Therefore it is extremely important to care for the sanctity of the Church’s community. The Gospel of Matthew outlines a four-step process of warning a member of the Church who sins: one-on-one encounter; in the presence of witnesses, informing the whole community and finally a decision to exclude such person from the com- munity (Matt.18:15-17).

“Do not harden your hearts” (Ps. 95:8). Today’s responsorial psalm contains a lesson from the past. During a forty-year journey through the desert, even though they constantly saw the great works of God’sprovidence, the nation put Him many times to the test. Because of their sinful conduct, none of those who came out of Egypt – except Joshua and Caleb – reached the promised land (Ps. 95:8-11). The psalm is a warning against imitating their “evil, unbelieving heart” and “fall away from the living God”(Heb. 3:12).

What to do, when someone hardens his heart and is not willing to listen to the Church? “Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:17). This statement is interpreted differently. Some say that it means weare to adopt the attitude of Jesus who was perceived as “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34). Since our admonition was not successful, perhaps preaching again the Gospel about God full of love andcompassion will have an effect. Others think that the passage means thatsuch a person should be avoided to make him ashamed of his sinful conduct (Rom. 16:17; 2 Thess. 3:14). In both cases, however, it has the same purpose: to lead the sinner to conversion.

What to do, however, when neither reprove nor preaching the Gospel helps? Pray. “Eternal Father, for the sake of Jesus’ sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world” (the Chaplet of Divine Mercy). What the words cannot do, the prayer of the Church can do (Matt. 18:19-20). And prayer for the conversion of sinners is yet another expression of our deep love of neighbor that desires the grace of salvation for all people.

Brotherly Love – Youtube