Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mathew 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.”
Win over your brother
1. If your brother sins. Anyone can make a mistake, but the important thing is to help them and let them know that they have hurt you. Just because you have been hurt by someone’s actions does not mean you can just turn your back on them. By turning them away, you may be letting the devil win their soul. You need to help them and not reject or ignore them. Jesus asks you to go beyond feeling hurt; it’s a matter of saving souls. He reminds us that in community life there will always be difficulties with our brothers and sisters. Those of us who are in the Church are not saints. Remember that the Church is not a house of “pure angels” but rather a “hospital of dangerous bacteria”, where we go with our illness and pains and turn to the great Physician so He can heal us of all those bacteria that have stuck in our souls.
2. Win over your brother. This is the purpose of fraternal correction, not to destroy others, or throw them out of the Church, but rather to help them to correct what they’re not even aware of. We all have a spiritual sickness, a habit that we have to change, that’s why my brethren are there, to correct me and help me. It’s important that we correct one another. Correction is an art, because it implies accompanying others in their process, it implies praying for them. It means saving their soul, but if we don’t pray, we can fall into a pressuring attitude and even become annoying people. Instead of being brethren who help others to overcome their weakness, we become persecutors, like a “Christian Interpol”.
3. Prayer. How important it is to pray together! For a long time, we have organized action groups and church movements, and that is very positive, but many of them were not sustainable and were quickly dismantled and some others became solidarity groups. But in recent years, many small prayer groups have emerged. This is very positive, groups of 8 or 9 people who get together to pray the rosary and to build their faith. Let’s remember what the saint used to say, ‘first prayer, second sacrifice and finally action’. How nice it is to feel united, as a family, in the Church, praying for one another. It’s even more beautiful to feel Jesus at our side! Today when you go to mass remember this phrase “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and guard you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
