Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you may have wound up taking your car to a body shop. The ensuing body work hopefully restored your car, if not to its original pristine state, then to a functional state of repair. It’s no accident (pun intended!) that we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, are required to engage in Body work. We are, after all, the Body of Christ, and each of us is responsible for doing our part to keep Christ’s Body as healthy and vibrant as possible. That takes work, it takes intentionality and effort. In our Gospel today, Jesus invites us into some serious Body work. Let us ask Him for the graces we need to be courageous and willing to do the (oftentimes) hard work to which we’re called.
In our Gospel, Jesus clearly spells out the procedure we’re to follow when we realize that a brother or sister has sinned against us. Jesus’ method involves 3 steps that move from a 1:1 conversation to a small group effort to the involvement of the whole Church. Our Lord is speaking about ecclesiastical matters, but I believe we can apply his teaching to our personal lives, as well. Following are my prayerful ponderings. Try them on for size and see what the Lord might reveal to you.
Jesus says to his disciples and to us, “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.” Is Jesus concerned about our personal relationships? Yes. Is he concerned that his brothers and sisters live in harmony with one another? Yes. But this matter goes much deeper than our individual relationships. Our communal identity as the Body of Christ lies at the heart of Christ’s teaching.
If a brother or sister sins against me, ultimately that person has sinned against Christ, because together we are the Body of Christ, and Christ is our Head. Any sin that any of us commit is not merely a personal sin. The Church teaches us that my sin affects the entire Body of Christ, just as my virtue can be efficacious for the whole Body. So, in today’s Gospel, I’m recognizing that the sin of this brother against me is ultimately not about me; his sin affects the whole Body and grieves Christ who is our Head. I’ve been praying about this a lot lately because sadly I have some key relationships with people who hurt and mistreat me regularly. It’s so hard not to take offense at each slap in the face. One day I realized that even though these people hurt me deeply, it’s really Christ they’re offending. With each slap, I try to remember to pray, “Jesus I’m so sorry that she said that to you; or Jesus I’m so sorry he did that to you.”
As we consider Jesus’ directive today, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone,” it is indeed about seeking reconciliation 1:1. Jesus tells us that if he’ll listen to us, then we’ve won over our brother. I pray and hope for forgiveness and reconciliation between this brother and me. But ultimately what does Jesus mean when he says, “then you have won over your brother?” Could it be that he means we have won him over to the faith; we have helped him attain a victory in conversion; we have won him over from the clutches of Satan back into the light of truth? Because when that brother sins and/or harbors unforgiveness against me, he is cooperating at some level with the enemy of our souls. When we go to that brother and tell him his fault, the desire of our heart and our objective should be to help him achieve reconciliation first with Christ. The stakes for this brother are much higher than any pain or offense we experience personally.
Approaching another person to name his sin and give feedback on how it has hurt us is a daunting task. Having trepidation about that is natural. But I think we must ask ourselves, am I afraid to confront this person, or am I unwilling to confront this person? We bring our fears before the Lord who gives us grace and help in our need. If upon an examination of conscience, we find ourselves unwilling, let us ask the Lord for a deeper conversion to be able to follow the Lord’s teaching. At the end of our passage today, Jesus says, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” We can trust our Lord in confidence, that even in the midst of confrontation, there he is with us, and we need only to call upon him. Of course, each situation requires great wisdom and discernment. It's not always prudent or safe to approach certain individuals. I guess the point I’m making is that we must love our brother enough and have such concern for his soul’s state that we’re willing to do the hard “body work” whenever it is prudent to do so and before it’s too late.
Jesus, today I’m asking you to forgive me for every time I’ve inflicted pain on another human being by my sin and thus causing your Body to suffer. Ultimately Jesus, I ask you to forgive me for offending your most Sacred Heart. Have mercy on me and on all my sisters and brothers this day. Give us courage to be willing to follow faithfully where your feet take us into reconciliation. We love you Jesus! Amen.
-Elizabeth Wells