Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, September 10, 2023, as the twenty third Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A. In the Entrance Antiphon we pray: “Lord, you are just, and the judgements you make are right. Show mercy when you judge me, your servant. Amen.”
Today’s Mass has a clear message for us – fraternal correction – in other words, we have a responsibility to dialogue with our fellowmen and women, especially when it involves correcting one another and living in harmony with them. That is not an invitation to pry into others’ lives, or try to run their lives for them. Rather, it is a statement from the scriptures themselves, which requires that individuals and nations alike live in a brotherhood that ensures justice and peace. Christians must actively cooperate to ensure a world of justice and peace, free of violence; a world in which our eyes are permanently fixed on the cross of Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
In the first reading, from the prophecy of Ezekiel, the prophet has an ardent task of making his people turn away from their evil ways and back to God. But as a prophet and a man of God, he has to proclaim God’s will because if he doesn’t, he will be doing a grave injustice to God and to man. In the second reading, from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we are told that we are debtors all our lives to all men and women. We owe them our love and he or she who loves his or her neighbour, fulfills the commandment of love, which our Lord decreed before going up to his Father in heaven. The obligation to love one another comes out clearly in Matthew’s Gospel in which we learn that there comes a time when we must confront those who are involved in wrong-doing in a spirit of fraternal correction. We cannot afford to be silent in the face of something wrong or evil. But we must do this in a fraternal and forgiving manner.
First Reading: Ezekiel 33: 7-9.
Thus says the Lord: You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me. If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die," and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.
Comment
History tells us that the prophet Ezekiel performed his prophetic ministry during the Babylonian exile from the year 592 BC to about the year 570 BC. The name Ezekiel in Hebrew means “God strengthens” or “May God strengthen”. Ezekiel was taken to Babylon alongside other prominent people of Jerusalem when that city was attacked, captured and ransacked by King Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC (2 Kings 24:10-17). It was therefore from Babylon that Ezekiel preached the message received from God, not only for the exiles but also for those who remained in the land of Israel after the deportation.
What was Ezekiel’s overall message to his people? Like the other prophets, Ezekiel received from God the mission to urge his people to remain faithful to the Covenant God made with them. Unlike the other prophets, however, Ezekiel, first and foremost, presents a message of God in constant action. God’s hand enables the prophet to see God’s glory everywhere and in every creature. He shows that God acts in the whole world in every human activity. Ezekiel combined the office of a priest and a prophet. The result was a healthy balance between the external rituals of temple worship and a more personal and spiritual religion of the heart.
In the passage the Church has selected for our meditation this day, the prophet speaks of the responsibilities we all have towards one another. We are the watchmen and women of our age who must speak out wherever and whenever we find spiritual danger threatening the people of God. We must watch over the integrity of our Christian community.
The simple lesson here is that we are one another’s keeper. This is all the more glaring in our country that is ravaged by this senseless war in the northwest and southwest regions that is preventing our children from going back to school. Bring the warring parties around your table of brotherhood so that they may come to know, love and serve you, the Prince of Peace. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, who lives with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: Romans 13: 8-10
Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Comment
The whole of Paul’s letter to the Romans is about what the love of God has achieved for us in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Paul says that our love for one another reflects God’s love and mercy to us. In this passage, he stresses the love of neighbour as the dynamic force of our Christian life. The commandment of charity and love counts above all else. The old commandments found in the Law of Moses have prepared us for the new law of love.
For us to keep the Commandments of God faithfully, we must receive the interior influence of the love of God and love of our neighbour. For when love motivates us, we readily give that which is due to him or her whom we love. Our motive in whatever we do should reflect the love of God, which makes it easier for us to love our neighbour. As someone has so justly said, charity, which is like the generous overflowing of justice, demands first of all the fulfillment of one’s duty.
In the course of this day, therefore, let us pray to God to give us the courage to share what we have with the have-nots, to be charitable to one another, especially to the weak, the poor and the needy those who, as Pope Francis says, live at the peripheries of our lives and our cities.
Let us join together and say this beautiful prayer for the needy which Saint Thomas Aquinas left to the Church: “Grant, Lord, that I may gladly share what I have with the needy, humbly ask for what I need from him or from her who has, sincerely admit the evil I have done, calmly bear the evil I suffer, not envy my neighbour for his blessings, and thank you unceasingly, Lord, whenever you hear my prayer. We make our supplication through Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Your word is truth, O Lord, consecrate us in the truth. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Mt 18: 15-20
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."
Comment
Saint Matthew reports another sermon of our Lord commonly called the “Sermon of the Church” because it concerns fraternal correction and common prayer. In the passage of our meditation this day, Saint Matthew affirms that genuine love of neighbour implies the willingness to correct them, if and where necessary, and to be willing in turn to accept correction when we too are in the wrong.
Cameroonian Jesuit priest, Father Kizito Forbi, says in his beautiful book, Harden not your Hearts, that for fraternal correction to be efficient and Christian, we must keep in mind three things: first of all, such correction must be handled tactfully and delicately, that is, keep it between the two of you.
Fraternal correction is a minefield because it may provoke the anger of the one being corrected. That is why it is important to exercise tact and skill. The aim of fraternal correction is not simply to tell the naked truth as it is, rather it is to win your brother or sister over and put him or her back on the right track that leads to God. Bringing out the truth in all its nakedness may instead alienate rather than win over someone. So it must be carried out with courage, humility, sincerity, compassion, reverence and patience, the aim being to preserve the other’s good name. Fraternal correction should never be a form of gossip.
The second element of fraternal correction, Father Kizito tells us, is patience. As Matthew says, “Keep it between two of you … If it doesn’t work, summon one or two others, if that doesn’t work either, refer the matter to the Church community, because wherever two or three of you join your voices on earth to pray for anything, God will listen to you”. Fraternal correction is therefore a step-by-step approach to solving a problem. The steps given in this day’s Gospel are to meet the person personally and in private. If this approach fails, we should take along with us one or two wise persons to create a new atmosphere. If that too fails, we must then take the issue to the Christian community. All else failing, there is always common prayer. “Again I tell you,” says the Lord, “if two or three of you join your voices on earth to pray for anything whatsoever, it shall be granted you by my Father in heaven. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there in their midst I shall be.”
Christ is therefore present where his followers gather in his name and make common petition to his Father. This saying not only confirms the efficacy of Christian prayer, but strengthens what is said at the end of the Gospel: “I am with you always even to the end of time.” United prayer is more powerful, sensible and effective than individual prayer. Such prayer must never be selfish but it must primarily aim at the good of our neighbour. The more we know our neighbour, the better we can formulate our prayer.
Fraternal correction, Father Kizito concludes, should always be done with hope, not fear. We should correct our brother with the confidence that it is Christ working through us. It should never be done in the spirit of self-pride. We should do it with the hope of winning our brother or sister for Christ and not out of fear about what would happen to us if we do not act.
Join me, will you, in saying this prayer of brotherly love taken from the Christopher Prayers for Today: “Lord teach us to cooperate rather than to compete, to respect rather than to revile, to forgive rather than to condemn. Your Son turned away from no one. May we learn, like him, to be open to the share of the divine that you have implanted in each of your sons and daughters; and may we forge a bond of love that will make a living reality the brotherhood in which we profess to believe. We make this supplication through your Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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