Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time/A
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mt 18:15–20), Jesus sets out with great clarity the nature of our relationship with, and responsibility towards, our brothers and sisters.
It is worth noticing that the way Jesus asks us to deal with someone who has wronged me is anything but simple: it is demanding; it calls for intelligence and inner freedom, and cannot be reduced to the sterile pursuit of an empty kind of ‘irenicism’.
‘Go and point out his fault, between you and him alone’: ὕπαγε ἔλεγξον αὐτὸν (hýpage élenxon autón). The verb ἐλέγχω (elénchō) does not simply mean to rebuke, still less to condemn. Rather, it carries the sense of bringing something into the light, of placing the other person before the truth. Yet Jesus immediately adds: ‘between you and him alone’. Truth, therefore, must never become a pretext for humiliating another person.
In essence, Jesus asks me to move beyond mere ‘scruples of conscience’, beyond that superficial putting-things-right which serves above all to avoid difficulties and tensions.
And the purpose of this demanding process is expressed in a particularly striking phrase: ἐκέρδησας τὸν ἀδελφόν σου (ekérdēsas ton adelphón sou), ‘you will have gained your brother’.
Gained your brother, not won an argument.
Not proved yourself right.
Not simply restored a rule.
The destination is the brother.
Once again, then, we are challenged at the very heart of our lives: in our habits, in the ways we have learnt to organise our relationships around the overriding concern of avoiding problems, even at the expense of truth and, above all, of the genuine good of those around us.
At times we call ‘peace’ what is merely fear of conflict. We call ‘respect’ our unwillingness to become involved. We call ‘prudence’ our desire not to be disturbed.
Jesus, with discretion and respect, instead calls into question our deeply rooted habits, our unspoken patterns of relating to others, absorbed through equally unspoken processes of formation; he calls into question that quiet desire of ours simply to lead a peaceful life which appears to be perfectly ‘in order’.
And perhaps it is precisely here that today’s Gospel becomes particularly demanding: because to love someone also means accepting that their good may disturb my own tranquillity.
In essence, the Lord once again confronts us with the temptation of a mediocre, insipid life, in which our finest energies are spent keeping problems at bay rather than actually living.
Perhaps, then, the question today’s Gospel leaves us with is very simple: how much of my life is truly lived, and how much of it, instead, is merely organised so as to avoid problems?
The Entrance Antiphon, or Introit, for today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 118 (Ps 118:137, 124) and has the following text:
Iustus es, Domine, et rectum iudicium tuum;
fac cum servo tuo secundum misericordiam tuam.
Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini.
(You are just, O Lord, and your judgement is right;
deal with your servant according to your mercy.
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord).
The accompanying music, in Gregorian chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex, published at Solesmes in 1979. The performance is by The Monks of Pluscarden Abbey. The recording may be found on the CD Tempus Per Annum: Gregorian Chant from the Monks of Pluscarden Abbey, released by Ffin Records in 2018.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
