Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Banogue Parish

A word of advice from someone can go a long way. I recall at a gathering of clergy a few years ago John Kiely telling us how when he was young he would often be at the side of his house practicing his swing in hurling when a priest passed by one day and suggested that he should try another way of swinging the hurley. And that indeed worked much better. He was grateful to the priest for the suggestion.

Today’s Gospel is speaking about the kind of advice we give one another in living the Christian life. None of us is perfect. We all need help. Jesus asks us to help each other by offering a word of fraternal correction if it’s needed. And if our attempt at first doesn’t succeed, we are not to give up on the person but maybe involve one or two others to see if we can help.

We might feel afraid to do this or think to ourselves, “who am I to go and offer a word of fraternal correction to others?” but since we are all members of the one Body of Christ, the other person is another “me” and if I were going in a wrong direction, deep down, maybe after an initial burst of annoyance or anger, I would be grateful that it was pointed out to me. Scripture says: A brother helped by his brother is like a strong city. We are responsible for each other’s holiness.

Jesus himself give us an example. He wasn’t afraid to correct Peter. We saw this in last week’s Gospel. We saw also when he corrected James and John who were ambitious for high positions in the Kingdom of God.

Of course, any correction has to be out of love and not out of our personal irritation or anger. We have to make sure we ask the Holy Spirit to help us. We have to be prudent.

And it’s not just about me correcting others. Each of us has to be able to accept correction from others. A few years ago a mother told me of how one day she was giving out about something to her son when he son said to her: “mom, you know, you’re like a Duracell battery”. She looked at him: “you go on and on!”. Initially the mother was upset but came around to seeing that her son had a point and that she was being corrected by Jesus in her son who was pointing out something she hadn’t noticed.

Christianity isn’t just about rules or religious duties. It is a lifestyle to be pursued day by day. The point is that Jesus wants to be among us. He doesn’t want to be locked into the tabernacle or reduced to a few teachings. Jesus is alive and wants to be among us when we love one another. He promised he would be with us. It’s the very last thing we hear him say in Matthew’s Gospel. But we can feel him more or less among us – that depends on us. Our relationships are very important in Christianity. As St. Paul puts it in the Second Reading – the only thing we owe to each other is to work on our relationships, to have love for one another.

We don’t always get it right. Each of us is limited. As Pope Francis puts it, no family comes down from heaven perfectly formed. We all have to grow and develop in our relationships. And that involves facing up to the truth and speaking the truth in love to one another. It’s not easy. That’s where we need to ask God’s help. We need to ask for prudence. God can do what we cannot manage.

One final point. Pope Francis makes the point that often when we see someone’s fault or sin, instead of going and trying to help the person, we resort to gossiping about the person. And gossiping, he reminds us, can kill a person’s reputation. Today’s Gospel wants us to avoid that.  Today’s Gospel is indeed very clear even if it’s challenging. Mark Twain once wrote, ‘Most people are bothered by those passages in scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, the passages in scripture which trouble me most are those that I do understand.’ 

So for the week ahead, let’s focus on our relationships in terms of looking out for how we can help each other, especially if someone we know is taking a wrong direction in life. Our words of advice or correction might be important to that person.