16 August 207 - indivisible

Today's Readings

The LORD is calling us to reconciliation and unity. This is true whether we are the one who sinned or someone else is.

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.

The LORD gives his Church the ministry of reconciliation.

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation (see Second Corinthians 5:19).

This ministry of reconciliation is not between God and an individual alone it is a ministry that reconciles us with each other.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (see Ephesians 2:14).

There is no longer anything that divides us more than the unity of the Spirit has the power to unite us.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slaveg nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (see Galatians 3:28).

The only condition of this unity is truth. We do not have anything lasting or important enough within ourselves, within our ideas, or within our institutions to produce a durable unity. Only with God as our Father can we find it. Only trusting in those whom he gives to lead us do we experience it.

Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom,
since Moses had laid his hands upon him;
and so the children of Israel gave him their obedience,
thus carrying out the LORD's command to Moses.

The Chair of Moses (see Matthew 23:2) gives way to the Chair of Peter. The leadership of Moses is amazing, but even that cannot compare to the Spirit which guides the Church into all truth. This is why we can trust the Church to settle disputes that even our best efforts cannot settle.

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

Yet the unity and reconciliation to which we are called is not meant to be distant or abstract. It is meant to be the very basis of our life together.

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.

Let us work to achieve this reconciliation of nations and groups and peoples. Let us all joyfully enter God's house.

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God: "How tremendous are your deeds!"

If we have place ourselves inside of the ministry of reconciliations, as both ministers and recipients we end our days like Moses,  whose "eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated."