Matthew 18:15-21
Dear Friends, Today’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation is where the Gospel becomes concrete, where the rubber hits the road.This message is part of a special section (Mt 18:1-35) on the church as a community. The Christian community is made up of flawed human beings who have a great need to heal the ever-present differences and conflicts that arise. Jesus presents a program of deep insight and wisdom.
When the conflict happens Jesus asks us to approach it with humility and radical forgiveness. Recall the advice from the Sermon on the Mount (Mt.5-7). There are all kinds of teachings about forgiveness and reconciliation. One really relevant one in today’s case is, “Remove the wooden beam from your eye first, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” (Mt 7:5)
Secondly, Jesus’ advice is to bring the conflict or hurt out into the open, bring it into the light of day. Going to the sinner in love and vulnerability helps us to often see another point of view. Often we see that there are usually not just two sides to every story. Sometimes there are six or seven ways to interpret the reality
Jesus’ teaching is to keep us from the vocation of being the victim. The victim seeks to divide not to heal. When we are the victim, we escalate the problem by telling others how we have been hurt. In this way we further disrupt the community. What we are really doing is seeking power to control the other.
Jesus asks us to involve others in a totally different way. Only after we have personally sought reconciliation, then we involve one or two others in a positive way. The goal is not punishment and control but forgiveness and compassion.
This is the stuff of the Gospel. Jesus precedes this lesson with the story of the shepherd leaving the ninety nine to go after the lost sheep. He follows it up by answering Peter’s question of how many times we need to forgive. Jesus says we are not to forgive only seven times but seventy times seven which means without limit.
Nevertheless, Jesus also teaches us that till the end we will have the weeds among the wheat. For the sake of community it may be necessary to remove an unrepentant one from the community. But even in this case, we should continue to be open, and where possible, seek reconciliation.
Finally, Jesus teaches us to bring it all to prayer. As my very good friend St. Teresa of Avila teaches us, one of the great gifts of prayer is self-knowledge. It is with this gift that we can approach life in community with deeper humility and greater openness not to be the first one to cast the stone! (Jn 8:7)
