Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Reflecting on Matthew 18: 15–20
Here’s a hint about getting the inside story of a gospel text. When Jesus speaks about a particular problem (in this case the issue of confronting someone who has hurt you) you can bet that exact issue is coming up among his disciples, or the communities they founded.
I think the demographic that most understands this process is Religious communities. They are an extraordinary counterculture in many ways, but imagine living in community with someone who drives you crazy, and whose membership in your community was something over which you may have had no control.
Any kind of community life is the great testing ground of faith. Think of the family in which you grew up. I think of my own kind parents, who tried and tried to get their kids to do better as human beings. Their words are my guideposts today, although, of course, I gave them no attention then.
One of the most insightful things I‘ve ever heard occurred in a small group in the Catholic Biblical School. We were talking about today’s gospel. The student said, “I think that’s why young people crave tv sitcoms like “Friends,” where the siblings, roommates, colleagues in the workplace speak directly to the person who’s bothering them. That doesn’t happen in real life. If one of my adult kids says a harsh word to their sibling, the sibling just writes them off forever. No fighting. No conversation at all. They’ve just been cancelled.”
St. Teresa of Avila thought that relationships in community (your family, your workplace, your home) were often a greater indication of one’s relationship to God than the heights of mystical prayer. And the first teacher, of course, is the family.
Have you been able to take constructive criticism from a friend?