GOSPEL - Mt 18:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.
Wednesday is dedicated to St. Joseph
STUDY - An excerpt from Link to Liturgy Lesson Confronting Sin
How do we go about correcting someone in sin? First and foremost, we must pray that God will give us the wisdom and virtue to say what needs to be said. Second, we must do everything in charity because it “binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14). We must help them seek forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church through the Sacraments. What a blessing we have a pattern to follow, that Our Lord Himself gave us. We always need to keep the steps in mind:
1. Go to the person individually, one on one.
2. Take a second or more people if needed.
3. Take the person to the Church and if that is not possible take the Church to the person.
What about the fourth step, treating the person like a gentile or tax collector? When a baptized person stays in habitual sin, despite the fact that an individual has corrected them, a group has corrected them and the Church has corrected them, the person has separated themselves from the Body of Christ the Church. It is for this reason that they are compared to a gentile or tax collector. The gentile and tax collectors were separated from the community. When we refuse to be reconciled with others and with the Church, we separate ourselves. This however does not have to be the end.
How did Jesus treat the tax collectors and gentiles? Jesus sought reconciliation with the tax collector and gentile. Zacchaeus and Saint Matthew are two tax collectors, both of whom desire to be reconciled. Zacchaeus moved through the crowd and climbed a tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus and then Jesus dined at his house. Jesus also went to His house of Saint Matthew to eat with him and personally called him out of sin and to a life of grace. Jesus never gave up on the gentile or the tax collector and He never gives up on the sinner. He states the sin very clearly and He always calls the sinner out of the sin into a life of repentance. We too must call sin a sin, but must never give up hope regarding conversion; we can never stop personally calling the sinner to repentance to a life of holiness. We too must remember that we are always in need of conversion and must keep a penitent heart.
