Brothers and Sisters,

We have been making our journey with Jesus through the Gospel of Mathew. The following is what we have learned so far about being his disciples. We are sent into the world with a positive attitude to bless and befriend the world.  We must nurture a blessing attitude and cultivate virtues of hospitality, fidelity, humility, gentleness, patience, generosity and a habit of listening to the voice of God, as well as listening and responding to those beyond family and friendship circles and strive to be the rock on which Christ would build his Church. Last Sunday, we heard a profound and challenging call to reflect on the cost of being the rock on which Christ builds his Church…the cross, suffering, and death await all disciples who follow Jesus.

Today, we celebrate the Twenty-Third Sunday in ordinary time of the year. Our Scripture readings of this Sunday call us to be patient and tolerant with our imperfections, failures, mistakes and shortfalls and those of others as well. We are called to be mutually correcting and forgiving and supportive of each other in families and communities. This call is an integral part of our baptismal anointing. At our Baptism, we were anointed priest, prophet, and king. Mutual correction, forgiveness and support reflect our priestly, prophetic, and royal mission.

The Prophet Ezekiel (first reading) reflects on being vigilant like a watchman on the city wall. We share in this prophetic mission of Ezekiel to be vigilant, to be the voice of God, to be mutually correcting and forgiving, and being supportive of each other. Paul speaks of Mutual love calling forth mutual support and mutual correction (second reading). Love, he says, is the complete fulfillment of the Law. This is expressed in our concern for the well-being of others. 

Jesus teaches (Gospel) his disciples and us today to make honest efforts to help one another recognize and correct the mistakes and wrong-doings. He taught them to spare no effort to correct a person. He also taught them to be patient in correcting brothers and sisters as God is patient and offer one another every chance for change. If a brother or sister refuses to respond to our efforts to correct their mistakes, “treat him (or her) as you would a gentile or a tax collector,” says Jesus. Some people have interpreted this to mean, “have nothing to do with them.” However, we know how Jesus treated the gentiles and tax collectors and that is how we are called to treat erring brothers and sisters – with kindness, compassion, gentleness and patience because the sinning brother is still our brother and the sinning sister is still our sister.

To read more of these reflections, please click on the link below…