Wednesday, August 16, 2023

16 August 2023 - the promise of unity


Jesus said to his disciples:
"If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

This is in contrast to what many of us do, which is to tell everyone except our brother about his fault. We are given to gossip even if we mask our gossip under the guise of seeking advice. Most often we don't really need advice but simply prefer it to the potentially emotionally charged moment of confronting our brother. We have all kinds of reasons ready in hand for why we ought not confront him. But we should make sure of whether or not these are good reasons or simply excuses. Even a person who is better than us in many respects may not be better in all and may stand to benefit from our reaching out. Of course we must be cautious that the fault we think we perceive in another isn't in fact the board in our own eye. But if we approach our brother in humility and genuine concern and not from prideful judgment we diminish the risk of the confrontation doing damage to both of us.

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.

We are often reluctant to seek assistance to help us mediate our disputes with others. But it can be important. The goal is not for us to win or to be proved right but rather to win a brother back from potential sin. It is to this end that we subject our own opinion to that of other wise brothers and sisters who are spiritually mature and who can hopefully see things objectively. This clearly isn't gossip because it is not intended to be behind the back of the brother who has given offense. 

This second step of fraternal correction is perhaps even more neglected than the first. If we take the courage to confront a brother whom we love because we love him too much to see him continue in sin and he reproaches us we are more likely to close ourselves off to him than to open ourselves to the potential of further hurt by exposing the situation to others. Yet all the steps in the framework of fraternal correction are important if the sin is real and serious. This is because when the situation is not resolved even by two or three witnesses, or even by the the Church herself, the only alternative is fairly bleak.

If he refuses to listen even to the Church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

It is clear that we are not meant treat Gentiles and tax collectors as pariahs to be avoided. We are meant to treat them as Jesus treated Matthew and others, that is, as outsiders in need of evangelization. But this means that the fellowship and unity of the Spirit that is meant to obtain within the body of Christ has suffered injury. And this unity is not merely something decorative and nice to have. It is vital to the witness and power of the Church's mission in the world.

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.

Isn't it at least possible that some prayers of ours are going unanswered because we are meant to be united in prayer with those others we haven't loved enough to pursue in the way described by Jesus? Jesus makes it clear that what he describes won't always work. Everyone has the freedom to respond or not to respond. But if we don't even attempt what he suggests it may be that we put ourselves at a similar risk (though to a lesser degree) of what God says will happen to prophets who refuse to speak his warning.

If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand (see Ezekiel 3:18).

This word of God seems to be calling us to love our brothers and sisters enough that we don't allow fear to prevent us from reaching out to them in love. The point is not to feel condemned about those relationships we have tried to salvage but which were unsalvageable. The point is to trust Jesus if we hear him calling us to reach out in this way going forward. Many of us are probably unaccustomed to the process described here. And we definitely aren't called to go out as moral fault finders seeking to fix every problem. We are simply called to be open to apply the solution offered by Jesus himself when we see sin threatening to damage someone's relationship with us and potentially even with the Church herself.

We should avail ourselves of all of the wise counsel of Jesus in order that we can look back on our lives without regrets, to enter the promised land, and not simply gaze on it from a distance.

"This is the land
which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
that I would give to their descendants.
I have let you feast your eyes upon it, but you shall not cross over."

For us, this promised land can be experienced when the Church comes together in unity and experiences the full potential of the power promised by Jesus himself. And this is a land that we can enter, the fruit of which we can experience even in this life, if we follow the lead of Jesus, the prophet like Moses, and yet infinitely greater.

Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.



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