Sunday 10th September 2023 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ezekiel 33:7-9/ Psalm 94(95)/ Romans 13:8-10/ Matthew 18:15-20

The opening prayer at Mass today speaks of ‘true freedom’. What is true freedom? Does it mean a freedom to do, say, and think what we like? If we did behave as we wished, oblivious to the lives of others, society would quickly break down. Imagine our homes without any rules. What would our schools and workplaces be like without policies and accepted ways to behave? What would the world be like without laws and precepts governing the way we live?

We cannot live just for ourselves, with true freedom comes great responsibility. Each freedom we have comes with a responsibility to exercise it with thought for others. We need guidelines, rules, and regulations in our homes, schools, workplaces and everywhere to live in true freedom exercising our rights in harmony with the responsibilities we have to others.

The first reading and the gospel passage today does not give us the right to judge others. Only God has the authority to judge us in respect to our relationship with him, creation, and others. What the readings today are telling us to do is to correct the faults of others when they are in danger of severing their link with God. This must be done in love for our neighbour and not in a sanctimonious way. It is out of the love we have for others that we have a duty, not a right, to seek to correct errors that may lead them away from the love of God. This is not easy to achieve but as Paul points out in the letter to the Romans all the commandments are summed up by love.

Human beings are prone to do the wrong thing. This is evident in the way we treat each other from our earliest toddler days and throughout our lives. It is a result of the fall we read about in Genesis and the reason that Jesus had to come to redeem us. We need rules and regulations to keep society functioning. When a parent admonishes or corrects a child it is done out of love for that child. If left to their own devices children could come to great harm and they need parameters to live within in order to grow and develop safely and become good members of society.

The Kingdom of God on earth also needs rules and regulations, the commandments, to keep us on the right track in respect of our relationship with each other but also in our relationship with God. We are given the commandments to form a cohesive society within the church on earth but also within the population in general. The Church has been given authority direct from Jesus to administer these commandments and, through our baptism, we are all called to play our parts in keeping them but also encouraging others to keep them. This must be done without judgement but in love, love for the person concerned and love for God.

The readings today encourage us to warn others who might be following a wrong path, if not we could be called to account for not doing so. In making this bold move we must be sure that we are doing it out of love as a parent would guide a child. As Paul tells us ‘Love is the answer to every one of the commandments.’ The Gospel appears to be challenging but it sets out a model for a just, cohesive society both within the church and throughout the world. We do not show our love by behaving as we wish or letting others do the same.

All regulation should be enacted in love, governing our lives to safeguard the dignity and value of each person. Our wellbeing and that of others may well depend on being guided in the right path when we or others stray. In any case of correction, the actions must spring from a desire to heal and not hurt. We each have a responsibility to others, and we may have to intervene to point people in the right direction. We must be careful not to judge and our motivation must be in love for the wellbeing of another. Failure to fulfil this basic of Christian actions could allow someone to stray so far from God as to be lost completely. We do not want to find ourselves held accountable for that as warned by Ezekiel.

There are times when the Universal Church, the diocese, bishop, priests and even us as individuals must, in love, without any hint of vindictiveness, follow the difficult path of addressing the wrongdoing of another.

God Bless Brendan.