The 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 10, 2023

Matthew 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.”

The Lord refers to his “Church” as such exactly twice in the Gospels: in Matthew 16, 18, where Jesus tells Simon the son of John that he is “rock” and upon this rock he will build his Church, and here, where he provides guidance for church order.  It would be interesting to know whether the Lord used the Hebrew word keneseth, meaning “assembly”, which the Greeks translated with their word synagoge or whether he used the Greek word ekklesia, another Greek word meaning “assembly” that the early Christians, including the Apostles, preferred, as it distinguished the Christians from the Jews.  The fact that Jesus spoke of his Church during his lifetime indicates that he meant for his first followers to think of themselves as distinct from the Jews, though they themselves were  originally Jews.

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”  The Greek text is stronger: If your brother wins against you, depart and rebuke him between yourselves only.  The Lord’s counsel seeks to avoid the scandal among non-believers of a dispute between Christians.  St. Paul was already dealing with this problem among the Gentile Christians in the early 50’s: “But brother goes to law with brother: and that before unbelievers” (1 Corinthians 6, 6).  The Lord says, in the Greek, “Depart”: Do not remain where you are being wronged or hurt, as long as it is between you and the other and does not directly involve others.  “And rebuke him between yourselves only.”  That is, not only tell him that he has sinned and what his sin consists of, but how it has caused personal distress or harm.  Now, how one goes about doing this depends on several factors.  We have to act prudentially and choose the right time, place, and words for this rebuke.  It is best delivered in a calm though firm manner.  And the purpose of the rebuke is “to win over your brother”, not to avenge oneself on him.

“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.”  The stipulation for the number of witnesses goes back to Mosaic Law.  This next step depends upon there having been present at the offense at least two or three other people.   Their presence would be to cause the offender to admit to his action, to seek forgiveness, and to make amends when he might dismiss or make light of what the offended or harmed person says.  “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.”  That is, the local Christian community.  This was practical to do in the early years of the Church when individual churches were small and might contain a dozen or a few dozen people.  It is done now only in cases of a member of the clergy who causes harm to a parish through embezzlement, for example, or to a family or individual.  The matter should be reported to the local bishop, or, if it involves a bishop, the papal envoy may be contacted or the local archbishop.  “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”  The term for this action is excommunication, which St. Paul applied to the woman and her son who were living as husband and wife yet claiming to be Christians in 1 Corinthians 5, 1-5.  

“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.”  This saying may have been given at a different time than the preceding counsel but Matthew was reminded of it when he recounted Jesus speaking of witnesses.  On the other hand, it may be that the Lord simply went onto a related but different subject st this point.  He is speaking though not of the general members of a local church but of the Apostles.  He had already granted Peter the power of binding and loosing but now he gives it to the Apostles as a group.  This power relates primarily to the sacramental absolution or withholding of absolution of sin.  It is the basis for the Apostolic Pardon which a priest gives to a dying Catholic.  The Pardon, presupposing the recipient is sorry for his sins and is detached from the desire to sin, not only forgives sins but also remits punishment due to sin in this world and in the next, meaning purgatory.

“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.”  If one person who believes in the Lord and asks for something in his name receives what he has asked for, how much more those who are joined together to ask for a certain thing!  What we ask for pertains to needed graces, conversions, and that which is necessary to do God’s will.  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  The Lord is present in the believer’s heart through grace and is present in the midst of several believers to a stronger degree: “The Kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17, 21).

We see how the Lord does not leave us as scattered individual Christians but has bound us together not only through baptism but through the society of the Holy Church.  It is as members of his Church that he desires us to live out our lives in his service as we await his return, aided, comforted, and, when necessary, rebuked by other members.