TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
10 SEPTEMBER 20
In
the passage just before today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the lost
sheep. He asks the question: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them
goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of
the stray?” The answer, of course, is that
no human shepherd would leave ninety-nine of his flock to search for one
irresponsible sheep gone astray.
However, that is not God’s attitude.
Jesus continues with his parable:
“And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than
over the ninety-nine. In just the same
way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones
be lost.”
Today,
Jesus applies that same principle of the Father’s love to Church. Jesus knows that conflict is an unavoidable
part of life, even among disciples who share the community life of the
church. In dealing with conflict, we
need to approach anyone who has strayed away with the same love and mercy as we
have experienced from the Lord when we have strayed away.
The first
step, Jesus says, is to approach the member who has sinned against you. The Greek word for sin is hamartia, which is a term from archery
indicating that the person has missed the mark. The person who takes the first step in
reconciliation is not the one who has missed the mark. It is the one who has been offended. The fault may be something trivial, which the
offending person may not even be aware of.
Or it can be something more serious, like gossip or character assassination. The offended person needs to lay open or
uncover the offense in private. If that
person listens, then we have won him or her over. Our mercy has carried the lost sheep back
into a full relationship.
If that
does not work, Jesus urges us to take the next step. Bring one or two others from the community
and present the facts. Many of us have
experienced this next step when we bring a loved one with a serious addiction
to other people who loves that person.
We know this as an intervention.
Together, we present the facts as clearly and lovingly as possible. With witnesses who truly care about the
person, there can be a negotiation. Sometimes
this process works.
However,
this process of negotiation is not always successful. So, Jesus tells us to take the matter to the
church. A couple of weeks ago, we heard
Jesus give to Simon Peter the ultimate authority to bind and or loose in the
universal church. In a parish, that
authority rests with the pastor. If this
third step does not work, then Jesus tells us to treat the person like a
Gentile or a tax collector. Even in
those cases, we need to imitate the example of Jesus, who continued to love and
reach out to Gentiles and tax collectors.
Dealing
with conflict is never easy, whether that conflict is within a human family or
the family of this parish. The two years
of the pandemic produced the most conflict I have ever had to deal with as a
priest. We were accused by some of being
too strict, and by others of being too lenient.
People left the parish because they disagreed with the way we were handling
directives from the county health department.
They may be gone, but we treat them with respect.
Avoiding all conflict makes matters
worse. As difficult as dealing with
conflict may be, we need to take the steps outlined by Jesus. It is much easier to complain about someone
who has offended us. It is much more
difficult to deal with that person directly with love and truth. That is why Jesus assures us that he is
present wherever two or three are gathered in his name, even in the midst of
our conflict. His promise is especially
comforting as we face the divisions and
polarizations in both our Church and in our society as a whole. There are quite a few of us in this assembly who
number more than two or three. The Lord
is in our midst, giving us the grace to deal with the conflicts that come our
way.
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