Matthew 18:15-20

 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A

Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini

A good Sunday to all. 

There is a conception of sin that is very widespread and very dangerous; I usually hear it after a Bible course or after a homily in the Eucharistic celebration when I speak about the central truth of the Gospel: the great news that only Christians announce worldwide, not other religions. And this great and beautiful news is the unconditional love of God for all his sons and daughters, even for the most unfortunate, those who have been wrong in everything in life. And then, in the end, after a failed life, God will welcome all his sons and daughters into his arms. 

This is an undeniable truth in the Gospel: the Son of God has come to this world to announce this wonderful news. But this fantastic news does not please everyone; after the talk, someone always comes forward and says, 'If God does not punish if he does not make to pay those who sin, then I can also begin to enjoy life.’ Great! 

Here is the dangerous, erroneous conception of sin. It is as if sin is something beautiful that fills your life with meaning and joy. But—they say—'what a pity; God has forbidden it, and he will make you pay for it.’ You must not be afraid of God; in the end, God will not make you pay for it... stay calm. The one that will make you pay for it immediately, here, now, is sin. It devastates and dehumanizes you; you can have a momentary pleasure, but it's like the drug that gives you an intoxicated moment, but then it reduces you to a human larva. This is what sin does to you, not God. 

This is why the Lord, who loves you, warns you and points out to you what not to do because, in the end, you become less of a person. Think about what violence, adultery, theft, and lying reduce you to. Do they make you grow as a person, or do they cause you to regress? You seek joy and happiness; this drive is God's doing. Remember that if you don't follow the precious indications that the heavenly Father gives you, you will always walk out of the way and never reach the goal you aspire to. 

The Hebrew word for 'sin' is חטא 'hatad', which means to aim with an arrow but with a floppy bow. Do the test of reaching a target with a floppy bow. You shoot the arrow, but it doesn't reach the opponent; it falls before; it doesn't reach him. This happens with one who sins: he aims at joy but misses. 

And there is a providential sign that tells you that you have made a mistake: pain. Sin always leaves a bitter taste because we are well made; we are created for joy, and when one sins, something decays inside; it is pain. And one tries to anesthetize it with distractions, evasions, passing interests... They are all drugs. There is always unhappiness in the background when one sins. 

This is the 'weeping and gnashing of teeth,' the pain... because if you manage to collect yourself, find a moment of silence, and take off those blessed or damned headphones... with which you deafen yourself with music, and you're not afraid to listen to your inner self, you feel that behaving differently from what the word of God suggests, you are decreeing the failure of your life. It is not God who punishes you in the end; sin destroys you now. This is the catechesis that we should teach to our children and grandchildren. Not to tell them: 'God will punish you in the end,’ but 'today you are throwing your life away if you do not follow what the word of God suggests.' 

Therefore, sin does not wrong God. Job says it well, 'If you sin, what harm do you do to God? If you multiply your offenses, do you, perhaps, do him any harm?' Sin, therefore, harms the one who commits it, and then, of course, it has dramatic repercussions on other brothers and sisters who are touched by these errors. Therefore, let us no longer speak of a God who punishes people. What would God be if he had a son who had hurt himself, and on top of that, he added punishment? This way of projecting to God our way of doing justice is blasphemous. God comes out very badly with a monstrous face. Let us leave these sinister images of a resentful God who punishes those who transgress his commandments and a God who is only appeased if you apologize. 

God is untouched by our sins; instead, He is moved by his love for us because he suffers when He sees that we have gone astray; sin destroys us. Let us be mindful of our weaknesses because we all experience this sin, and at certain times, we do not trust in the word of God; we prefer to follow the serpent within us and the suggestions of this serpent. Indeed, there is a saying: 'Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.' So, let us be humble in recognizing our frailties and understanding even the weaknesses of our brothers and sisters. 

And now the question: What does God do when one of his children turns away from him? The answer is found in a verse not in today's Gospel passage but immediately before what we will hear today. I want you to listen to it: 

"It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost” (Mt 18:14).

What happens to a mother when her child becomes physically or morally ill? She worries about returning him to health immediately; the only thing that interests her is that he returns to life. The comparison with the mother is a pale image for us to realize to what extent the Father in heaven, who infinitely loves his sons and daughters, is concerned with the speedy recovery of his sons and daughters to joy. And when He succeeds in bringing him back to the right path, what happens? In heaven, they begin to celebrate. 

The first letter to Timothy says, "God our savior desires nothing more than this, that all may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” To be saved, not that they enter paradise at the end... no, they all enter. May they be saved immediately today, for it is here that they must be happy. 

How does the heavenly Father act with this son who has gone astray? I would say in two ways: first, with his Gospel, which continually points out the right way, and the one who has gone astray is called by this word to return to the right way. And then through his angels. Who are these angels? Not the ones with wings, no. Jesus now speaks to his angels very specifically. Angel in the Bible means anyone who is a mediator of the tenderness of the care of God for his sons and daughters. God has these mediators that he places beside each of his children, and these angels interest us because it is to them that Jesus addresses today to indicate how they should proceed and what steps to take to recover the brother or sister who is in difficulties. Let's listen to the first suggestion that Jesus gives to these angels: 

“If your brother sins, tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.” 

Here, Jesus does not make a general discourse on mutual duties; he directly addresses every child of God with 'YOU.' No, if your brother commits a fault, not if he has done you wrong or offended you. It has nothing to do with you; he hasn't done anything to you. Here, it is he who hurts himself, not you. What are you called to do? Sin is not a misfortune that falls upon you; it is an evil one seeks and chooses for oneself. So, one can say, 'It's up to him,' 'I have nothing to do with it,' 'I mind my own business.' If you think and speak this way, you are not an angel. If you love your brother who is in difficulties, you can no longer live in peace because his life is at stake. 

Too often, we forget that there is a sin of omission. If you can do something for your brother who has gone astray and does not do it, you are responsible for his ruin. If you say you are not your brother's keeper, you are Cain, not an angel. Be careful because if the brother is lost, you will not quickly get rid of remorse for the rest of your life, for God has made you well so that you may be an angel with your brother. 

How to act? A widespread mistake must be avoided, and that is to spread the news of the mistake that has been made. This is called gossip; it is the sin of defamation that can be murder; it only serves to marginalize the wrongdoer, humiliating him and making him suffer unnecessarily. Some think that telling the truth can calm your heart; some people even suffer from the pathology of gossip. Let's avoid these people because if you listen to them, they will involve you, and then you will hear that they have also gossiped about you. Beware. Says the book of Ecclesiasticus, “A stroke of the whip produces bruises; a blow with the tongue breaks the bones.” In my town, they translate this saying of Ecclesiasticus with a proverb, 'The tongue has no bones but breaks them.' 

The truth that does not produce love and joy should not be spoken; it can kill a brother, ruin a family, and break a relationship. Again, the book of the Sirach: “Let anything you hear die with you; never fear, it will not make you burst!” (Sir 19:10). What to do? Jesus says, "Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone." And try to convince him that he is doing evil to himself. The Greek verb is ἔλεγξον - 'elenxon' = persuade him. This first attempt is the most delicate and complex because things get complicated if they go wrong. What Jesus asks his angel to do is challenging, and it's also inopportune because we all would like to go and say nice things to our friends and the people we love. Instead, it's about going and giving a reprimand, and it's not easy to find the right words. And the concern is, what if I get it wrong? What if I express it wrong? I can get it wrong, even say a wrong word, a misplaced innuendo, and the other person becomes more hardened, and then I also have the worry that because of me, he has become more closed off, and I think that because I didn't get the result. 

Jesus says you have to overcome these thoughts; you can be wrong, you have to keep this in mind; you have to try even with this risk, even the loss of a friend because of you. This thought may help in these cases: ‘What would you like your brother to do for you if you were in the same situation?’ But it can also work out well if your love and skill can find their way into your brother's heart and you take him out of the hell he has gone to, then you are responsible for the feast that starts in heaven, which is a great joy for you. You are the one who started the feast. James says so in chapter 5 of his letter, "My brethren if one of you turns away from the truth and another brings him back to it, the one who has brought back his brother to the way of life knows that he who has brought back a sinner from his life of error saves him from death and covers a multitude of sins.” Even if he has made mistakes in life, having acted as an angel for a brother or sister helps him recover from all his mistakes, but the first attempt can also go wrong. What should he do? Let's listen: 

“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.” 

The first attempt was unsuccessful, so what do I do? I put my heart at peace; ‘I tried, but it cost me to put myself as an intermediary and has gone wrong; patience.’ Things don't work like that for Jesus of Nazareth; if you love your brother, you cannot abandon him to his fate, and Jesus suggests the second step to take; one angel was not enough; perhaps two or three angels are needed. 

Jesus says, 'Find a friend or two close to the person in trouble and then go together to see him; be careful; he must not get the impression that you want to corner him, humiliate and condemn him. He must perceive that he is dealing with three angels, three friends who have come to see him because they esteem him and they will defend him if someone gossips in their presence; they will take him out of the way, they will somehow shut him up, and then they would also defend you in front of the community; they will testify that you are a person of great value, that you are going through a difficult time but have a good disposition. 

It may turn out well; it's difficult, but this second attempt may be successful, and the feast starts again in paradise. But it can also go wrong, and the third step must be taken. Jesus suggests it: "If he does not listen to them, inform the community" because the Christian is not an isolated person who lives his spirituality, his religious practice, thinking of himself, no. He is a member of the community; he is inserted in the Church by baptism, and the whole Church is therefore involved in the health of this sick member and must intervene, but it is conceivable that the community intends to eliminate this person of which is ashamed and to excommunicate him because of his ideas, including his anti-evangelical speeches or his immoral behavior. 

No Christian can go so far as to say, 'Let him get on with it,’ 'Let him go his own way,' 'Let him get out of the way and get on with it.' No, never this expression because the Church is the last intervention, the most vital instance to recover the brother. One can go so far as to use harsh words but not to punish him and make him aware of his condition. The community should remind him of the seriousness of the baptismal commitments; it must say to him, 'If you behave like this, if you follow the logic of the world, you are out of the kingdom of heaven, and you must know it; someone must tell you to remind you that certain choices place you out of fellowship with the community.’ You can succeed, and there will be feasting in heaven. 

But this third attempt can also go wrong. So, what to do? Jesus says, "Treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector.” Just as it sounds, we would not expect this expression on the lips of Jesus, but it is beautiful, as we shall see in a moment. 

The community should take care of this sick member and all the brethren, many of whom are weak in faith and maybe scandalized by the ideas or behavior of this brother who is on the margin. What to do? The pastoral options of the Church have been different throughout the centuries. In the Church of the first centuries, they proceeded very rigorously. Those who severely wore morally dishonorable behavior were expelled from the community and excommunicated. Let us remember the case of the dissolute of Corinth, of which the first letter to the Corinthians speaks to us when Paul says, 'There is in the community one who behaves so immorally that this immorality is not even found among the Gentiles.’ He says, 'Expel him, deliver him to Satan that he may be saved,' that is, you see, Paul also says that excommunication is for recovery, that he may be saved. So also, if anyone falsifies the Gospel, he is to be publicly removed. The letter to Titus says, "The sectarian—heretic—after two warnings, avoid him..." (Tit 3:10). After one or two warnings, it is necessary to expel the heretic because he disorients the community. The community certainly cannot tolerate that someone in the name of Christ preaches foolish or false doctrines. 

The second letter to the Thessalonians says, “If anyone does not obey our word as expressed in this letter, take note of this person not to associate with him, that he may be put to shame. Do not regard him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thes 3:14-15). Here, we see the reason for excommunication; it is not to get a troublesome person out of the way but to recover the brother so that he realizes the seriousness of his situation. 

What does it mean to treat him as a Gentile or a tax collector? We know how the scribes and Pharisees had cut off bonds with the Gentiles, whom they considered and called dogs, and tax collectors they considered the dregs of society, impure people, destined to perdition. Thus, the Pharisees treated tax collectors and sinners. Not Jesus, but the scribes. Jesus did not deal, therefore, with tax collectors and sinners like that. He was called a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and if he recommends treating this brother who has problems as one treats tax collectors and sinners, it means 'as I treat sinful tax collectors,' not how the scribes and Pharisees treat them. You must relate to that brother in trouble, as I dealt with tax collectors and sinners who were my best friends because they most needed my love. 

It is clear that Jesus' invitation to be even closer to these people is difficult because they are weak and need more attention and maximum love. Let us now listen to the recommendations that Jesus makes to the community: 

“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.” 

We have heard a solemn promise that Jesus made to the community of his disciples. He said that everything that we bind or loose on earth will also be bound or loosed in heaven by God. Binding and loosing were the language by which the rabbis understood the authority to decide what is permitted and what is forbidden, what is under the Torah and what is prohibited by the Torah; what is right and what is wrong, what may be done and what may not be done. The rabbis decided this; they were the ones who bound or unbound. Now, Jesus says, this right to declare what is lawful, what is evangelical, what is forbidden, what is not evangelical, the whole community of my disciples has it. 

Jesus has already made this promise to Peter; he says this responsibility is not only for Peter, the Pope, and the ecclesiastical hierarchies. This responsibility is of the whole community of disciples; the entire community moved by the Spirit must be capable of discerning between what is evangelical and what is contrary to the Gospel. And humanity has a right to expect from the voice of this ecclesial community the indication of what humanizes and dehumanizes a person, what conforms and what does not conform to the words of the Master. 

It is a great responsibility that the Church has because it can be open to the voice of the Spirit, but it can also close her ears to this voice and instead open her ears to the suggestions of the evil one, to the voice of worldliness. Then the Church, instead of announcing the truth, can tell the lie that the Evil One suggests to her by the logic of this world, as, unfortunately, we know it has happened many times in the history of the Church. Then, those who expect the voice of truth from the Church go astray. They had her as the depository of the Gospel and of the word of Jesus of Nazareth; instead, she had closed her ears and heart to this voice and opened it to logic, to the wisdom of this world. 

That is why this solemn promise that Jesus made is a motive to rethink our lives because it is a great responsibility of the Church, of the whole community, that could lead astray those who trust in his word. And after this promise, let us listen to what Jesus recommends ending today's Gospel passage:

“Again, 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.” 

In Jesus' time, as also today, there were two forms of prayer: the communal prayer made in the synagogue and the personal prayer that Jesus recommended making in one's room when in dialogue with God after closing the door. These two prayers should be kept distinct. Even today, we see certain Christians who gather for communal prayer on the Lord's Day, and then while all sing, some withdraw into themselves, thinking of their dialogue with God to present their problems to him... no. You do this when you're in your room; when you're gathered with the community, prayer is communal; if the brothers sing, you sing with them. 

We ask ourselves now why the call to communitarian prayer in this context. The first reason is that the community has to solve the problem of a brother who has gone astray and does not live according to the Gospel. In the prayer, Jesus says that the community should feel united and willing to make the right decisions, those that the Lord suggests, and the Lord speaks to them precisely when they are in these moments of prayer; the community is ready and listens, united to the voice of the Spirit. 

Also, in communitarian prayer, we ask the Lord for the light to discern between what needs to be bound and what needs to be untied. The temptation could be to listen to what everyone is doing and decide what needs to be tied or undone. No, the Christian community, in prayer, listens to the voice of the Spirit and then decides so that it will be confirmed, even in heaven, what is right and what is wrong. 

If prayer is not prayed for, the community inevitably gives wrong directions dictated by the logic of worldliness. This moment of communal prayer is presented here with a beautiful Greek verb, συμφωνήσωσιν = symfonesoin = to agree; 'symfonei' means to make symphony; the community creating a symphony, i.e., symphony is the moment when each instrument plays its part well. Playing a symphony in the Church does not mean everyone must play the same instrument. We are not the same; the good Lord has made us different, and precisely because we are different, each can play his instrument well in the only score of love. 

The best call for the brother who has gone astray is the harmony of this community, and this brother must feel the nostalgia for this community where all make a symphony, play the score of love, and exchange the service of love with one another. 

In conclusion, Jesus assures us that the prayer made in this way will undoubtedly be answered. God will grant the community the ability to overcome all divisions and separations and achieve reconciliation and recovery for those brothers and sisters who are in difficulties. 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.