September 10, 2017

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Ezekiel 33: 7-9; Romans 13: 8-10; Matthew 18: 15-20

Life is about relationships.  So I ask how are the relationships in your life doing today as you read this blog?  I ask myself the same questions by looking at the triple commands of Jesus:  How am I in my relationship with God at the present moment of today?  How am I in my relationships with family and friends right now and then spread this out to the people in my life now:  work, neighbors, school, community, country, world?  Am I attuned to their needs or am I concentrating on my own?  Am I living in a world populated by only me which really is a world of alienation?  Or do I realize real living is me in the world God has placed me? Am I letting my possessions enslave or free me?  Do I see that loving me, loving God and loving each person in my life is where I am?

Life is about relationships.  I do not live my life in a vacuum.  John Donne wrote “No man is an island, entire of itself.” .  Ernest Hemingway expanded an understand of it's meaning when he wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;  any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”  We are social beings that cannot exist without people. No one is self-sufficient and everyone relies on another for survival.  Today’s readings speak of the importance of each one living in a right relationship and with personal responsibility in line with God’s plan.

Ezekiel shares the true mission of a prophet: to be a spokesperson of God leading people along the right path of life.  Am I living for myself or am I living the way that leads to God?  Today Ezekiel is watching out for the dangers that entrap and keep people’s vision away from God.  He is speaking to ‘dissuade’ a wicked person from his or her sin.  His audience was already experiencing the devastation of being in exile.  Have they forgotten God?  Do they feel that God doesn’t care?  Have they blocked themselves from God’s love thinking that God can’t care about them when ‘bad things happen to good people?’  So many were giving up on God.  Does this happen to me more often than I want to think?  

Paul is telling us that the way to God, the way to the fullest relationship I can have not only with God, others and myself is for each person to strive for the ideal of love.  Paul’s letter to the Romans concentrates on how faithful God has been to us and the unexpected ways in which God saves us.  We have been saved by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Our salvation is not the result of something we have done but what God has done for us in Christ.  From the very beginning of the creation to the end, our salvation is a total loving, gracious gift from total loving gracious God.  Jesus showed this love in every moment, in every detail, in every moment of His life. So the question is: How am I to respond to God who has been  so gracious and loving to me?  Paul's answer is quite simple: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law…and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Frank Matera, the professor of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America in Preaching Romans, Proclaiming God’s Saving Grace says, “Here, then, is the perfect expression of the Christian life.  If we want to live the Christian life in a way that is holy and pleasing to God, we will live as Christ did:  we will love our neighbor as Christ loved us.  If we want our life to be an act of worship, we will worship God by imitating the unselfish love of Christ.”

The Gospel gets very practical, Matthew presents a situation that asks what the community is to do when a member(s) have ‘sinned.’ This is a situation that no doubt came up in Matthew’s congregation  It is a real offense, not merely an accusation.  He proposes a three step solution, all focusing on my love and God’s love for each person, me and my enemy included.  The readings today make me aware that I have responsibilities toward everyone.  Storms arise in my life and in the lives of those I know and love.  Like the weather service, I cannot prevent floods and hurricanes, I can give warnings however but I can actually turn some personal storms into calm areas.  

Just look and remember how this has happened.  During my twenty-three years in Catholic education, many students told how upset they were with their parents and teachers who warned them about cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, sex , etc. They felt that their elders were ‘out of it’ and ‘not up to the times’. They wanted to be treated like adults.  These ‘ancient adults and teachers’ were well aware of mistakes youth make, they did many of them themselves.  They encounter problems when marriages break up. Did they do anything?  They might say, ‘I’m not surprised that happened, I could see it coming.’ OR ‘why didn't you do or say something about it.’ Are people with addiction problems confronted or do they go unnoticed by people in their lives.  How many say, ‘You need help…come with me to an AA meeting.’   People slip away from church.  Can it be that there was no one to invite them warmly to stay in the Church?  The bottom line is that loving the people in our lives is not easy.  It is never easy to warn others that they are about to trip and fall.  We are called to love.  We have a debt we owe since each one of us has been saved numerous times.  The debt binds us to love each other and this includes our obligation to warn each other about spiritual dangers in our lives.  I am never relieved of this obligation.  I can’t ‘pass the buck.'  I am called to pray for the strength and grace I need to help and love. 
So I reflect on:

• When has my speaking the truth led to a change or a healing?
• St Catherine of Siena said, “Speak the truth in love.”  That’s how God treats us.  How am I doing in this?
• When have I been confronted by someone?  Was it something important?  How did I feel?  How did the other person feel?  What is our relationship now?  
• How is love of neighbor a motivating part of my life?  How does it take precedence over the other commandments?

Sacred Space 2017 says,

   “Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.  He is with us in our church community.  His message is one of reconciliation, not retribution. We are asked to regain our brother or sister.  Regaining is more than stopping someone’s offensive behavior; it is converting that person—bringing about a true change in attitude.

   Jesus promises His continuing presence.  Even as I pray alone, I am united with others who pray at this time, with all of those who read this Gospel today.  I grow in awareness that Jesus wants to be present to me, is present to me, loves me, and calls me to life.”