Homily for 10th September 2023

 

Here’s a question for you – Imagine you have hired a watchman for the security of your building. One night robbers attempt to break into your building. The watchman yells and screams and does his best to alert you but you are in your house watching a movie on Netflix with your headphones on and you do not hear the warning. The robbers then manage to break into your home and manage to steal your valuables. Who is to be blamed for the robbery? The watchman or yourself? 

My dear friends on this 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, the readings deal with the theme of fraternal correction i.e. correcting someone who is going the wrong way. The 1st reading taken from the prophet Ezekiel gives us a very interesting oracle of a sentinel or watchman. A sentinel is a soldier or guard whose job is to stand and keep watch. The sentinel would have been stationed in a lookout position and sounded a trumpet upon sight of a threat. He is, however, not responsible for the people’s response to the warning. This image of a sentinel refers to the prophet’s role of warning people of the coming danger. The sentinel cannot force people to take action and therefore the prophet’s liability is limited if the people do not listen.

So what is the message of the prophet Ezekiel? Ezekiel, a priest, was one of the people exiled to Babylon in the first wave. He was later called to be a prophet, prophesying both doom for the city of Jerusalem and hope for the Israelites. Yahweh sent Ezekiel with a warning for the people, but just as in the example of the robbery, the people ignored the warning and were therefore responsible for what happened to them. If they had paid heed to the warning, their lives would have been spared. However, if it so happens that the sentinel fails to sound the alarm so that the people die without having been warned, then Yahweh will hold the sentinel responsible for their deaths. What is the message for us from this reading? Just like Ezekiel, we too like sentinels have a responsibility to proclaim the Gospel and to speak up when we see something wrong happening.  We are not responsible for the results, but we are surely responsible for fulfilling our duty as sentinels.

In the second reading taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, we get the essence of fraternal correction – Love. St. Paul adds a new flavour to the age-old wisdom about not having financial debts by saying that ‘we owe the debt of love to all people.’ Fair enough to ask the question ‘Why all people?’ Not everyone is good to us. Some are outrightly mean and hurt us as well. Yet, Paul challenges us to this universal call. The main reason behind this is that God loved us first while we were still sinners. Having experienced the love and forgiveness of God, it is natural for one to love and forgive others. We do not necessarily have to like them, but we do need to love them. Therefore, if we desire to love and serve others, we must first experience God’s love for us. Paul emphasizes that when believers in Christ love others, they are fulfilling the law of Moses. Love fulfils the intent of the law because all things can be summarized and fulfilled by love.

In the gospel taken from Matthew, the imperative to go to a fellow church member to point out a fault echoes the role of a prophet as a watchman as we have seen in the 1st reading. The objective of the reconciliation process is to win back the person instead of condemning the person. The gospel gives us practical advice to mend broken or injured relationships. The first thing that we are called to do is to speak about the problem directly and privately. Sounds like common sense, but often that is not what we do. If someone hurts us we keep thinking about it and keep nurturing anger and hatred. Worse still we go and tell everyone else about what that person has done. Rarely, do we meet the person face to face in private and express what we feel.

Doing this would reconcile a majority of the misunderstandings and hurts. However, if it doesn’t work then we are told to bring another person or persons, people who are wise and respected and will be able to bring about reconciliation. Unfortunately, most of the time people do not want to speak about their private lives to others who could help and choose instead to suffer internally in silence. If these steps fail then we must still not give up, but seek the help of the local church. If one refuses to listen to anyone then the person is to be treated as an outsider with the hope that finding himself or herself outside the community, they will be motivated to reform their ways and come back to the community.  

In the gospel, we also hear the words ‘whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 553) interprets the meaning of these words as Jesus giving the apostles the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. The CCC (no. 1445) also mentions that the words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God; whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his. Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God. We cannot say that I don’t need the Church and I will just go straight to God.

To reconcile with those who have hurt us is not an easy task but it is something that we need to do for our own good. Being at odds with anyone is like an invisible weight that we carry on our shoulders wherever we go and this weight keeps increasing with time.

I pray that we grow in awareness of our role as sentinels and be able to call a spade a spade and follow the steps given in the gospel to carefront anyone with whom we need to reconcile. Let us go and repay the debt of love that we owe to all people. May God bless us all.