Sunday the 6th of September 2026 - The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

You may have heard the old story about the man who visited the doctor complaining that it hurt when he pressed his shoulder, his knee, his ribs, in fact it hurt wherever he pressed. The doctor found that the man had a broken finger so it hurt wherever he pressed it. We might laugh at a story like this but the wisdom of it shows us that the source of the pain might not always be where we are pointing, sometimes it is the pointing finger that is the problem. The gospel passage today warns us about this trap we might fall into. If someone sins we should speak to them but it is too easy for the pointing, correcting finger to become the thing that causes a wound, jabbing, blaming, criticizing. Saint Paul, in the second reading, advises that we should owe nothing to anyone, except to love each other.

Before we consider pointing out someone's fault, we must check the finger. Is it pointing in love, or is it just to make us feel better? We need the courage to care, but need to understand the real love that seeks to correct error. It is easy to say it is none of our business. We value our independence and are quick to insist that what another person does is their affair. But the readings today tell us something different. We are not islands living in isolation, we are a community, we belong to each other, we are responsible for each other.

God, speaking through his prophet Ezekiel, said clearly that we must speak out to dissuade the wicked from their ways. We will be held accountable for failing to correct the actions of others when we are in a position to do so. We are appointed to be watchmen for our community as Ezekiel was for his, to look out for one another. This is a sobering thought when we would rather mind our own business. We are all one body, when one limb is injured, the whole body suffers. When one member of the Church drifts into sin, the whole community is wounded. As a faith community we are individual parts of one another. What one person does affects us all, for good or bad.

Although God gives us the duty to look out for each other, to correct error, it can go wrong so easily. What starts as well intentioned fraternal correction can become or appear to be fault-finding, criticism, or the satisfying feeling of putting someone in their place. This is why the second reading is the key that unlocks everything today. It must be done in love for each other, it is in acting out of love that we will fulfil the requirement God makes of us. Love is the measure of all Christian activity. Saint Paul lists the commandments, then states that they are all summed up by the one principal of loving our neighbour as ourself. Love will do no harm to a neighbour, any correction we offer, any rule we uphold, any confrontation we dare to make, has credibility only if it flows from genuine, overflowing, sacrificial love.

This is the atmosphere Jesus requires from us in the Gospel today. It can sound like a call to judge each other, but the reason for it is not condemnation it is to win someone back to the community and to God. To heal, restore and never damage or destroy. Jesus presents us with a patient, gentle, and wise path to protect those we love. The first action is to speak privately, protecting their dignity. If that fails, then involve one or two others. Only then involve the wider community. This is not gossip, whispered behind someone's back, it is love that refuses to give up. When every attempt fails, we are called to remember that there is only one true Judge, and that is Jesus himself. Even then, as Jesus teaches just after this passage, we must forgive not seven times, but seventy-seven times. The power to correct and reconcile does not come from us. It comes from Jesus present among us who tells us that where two or three are gathered in his name he will be there. The power to correct in love, to forgive without limit, to heal what is broken, comes from Jesus dwelling in the heart of our community.

We must be driven by the gentleness of genuine love for God and others. The psalm today warns us against having hardened hearts against the voice of God. That voice comes to us in Scripture, prayer, in the teaching of the Church, and in the example of others. We must not have hardened hearts that refuse to listen, that test God by looking only to themselves rather than to the greater good of others. Today we are called to have the courage and love to care. It is easy to avoid the difficult conversation, to walk away from the uncomfortable confrontation. When we stay silent while someone we love slips into harm, we fail them, and we fail the whole Body of Christ. The failure to address a small wound early can allow it to fester into something far greater. Let us examine our lives. Is there someone we need to approach in love, not to scold, not to win an argument, but out of genuine love for their soul? Can we do it gently, humbly, aware of our own weakness and need for correction?

At mass Jesus gives us his Body making us one with him, one body, one community. As we receive the Eucharist, we are knitted together as members of one another, nourished by the same Lord. May this Sacrament give us the love we need to be true watchmen for each other, ministers of grace, healers of wounds, so that together we may come to eternal life.

God Bless Brendan