Go to the Mass Readings for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (year A)
Saint Maria Goretti was born in 1890 in Italy. Her family lived in poverty. After her father died of malaria, Maria’s mother was left to care for her children alone. While her mother and older siblings worked in the fields, Maria cooked, sewed, kept the house, and lovingly cared for her youngest sister, Teresa. Despite their poverty, the Goretti family was united by strong faith.
In 1902, twelve-year-old Maria was seated on the steps of her home, quietly sewing, when Alessandro Serenelli, an 18-year-old neighbor, attempted to sexual assault her. Maria resisted with all her strength, crying out that what he was doing was a mortal sin, warning him that it would endanger his soul. “No! It is a sin! God does not want it!” she exclaimed. Enraged by her resistance, Alessandro stabbed her fourteen times before fleeing.
Alerted by the younger sister’s cries, the family rushed home and found Maria gravely wounded. She was taken to the hospital where surgeons operated without anesthesia. Before dying, Maria forgave her attacker, saying she wished to see him with her in Heaven. Alessandro Serenelli was soon captured and sentenced to 30 years in prison. For many years he remained hardened and unrepentant. Eventually, he experienced a profound conversion after a dream in which Maria appeared to him in a garden, offering him lilies that burned away as he held them. From that moment, his life changed.
Upon his release, he sought out Maria’s mother and begged her forgiveness. She replied, “If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withhold forgiveness?” Maria Goretti was canonized in 1950. Alessandro Serenelli was present at her canonization. He then lived with Capuchin Franciscans, spending the rest of his life in penance and prayer. Saint Maria Goretti is honored as a virgin martyr, but honored especially because her life reveals the Gospel’s deepest truth: that forgiveness is stronger than violence and mercy more powerful than sin.
Our first reading is from the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, who was a priest at the time approaching the Babylonian Exile, 500 years before Jesus. God spoke the message in our first reading to Ezekiel to warn Israel to repent of its corruption or Israel would be destroyed by Babylon, and that if (when) Babylon does conquer them, Israel’s own sins are the reason. God says to Ezekiel, “I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me. If I tell the wicked, ‘O wicked one, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death.” A watchman of course warns the people of oncoming danger. In this case, the oncoming danger is the exterior consequence of their interior corruption. In the verses after our reading, God says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, house of Israel?” God is on their side. God wants them to repent, wants them to live and flourish and be secure and happy, as long as they are faithful and virtuous. And so it is really out of divine love that God sends Ezekiel to warn them, and it should be out of love for God and for his people that Ezekiel relays it faithfully. If God tells him to correct a wicked person to dissuade him from his wicked way, and Ezekiel fails to do so, then the wicked person will die for his wickedness, and Ezekiel will be held responsible for cooperating in his death. The second half is the opposite: If God tells Ezekiel to correct a wicked person to dissuade him from his wicked way, and Ezekiel does so, but the wicked person does not obey him, then the wicked person will die for his wickedness, but Ezekiel will be innocent of his death.
It’s important to note that the correction is not just to the culture of wickedness, but to individual persons. Catholic Social teaching says that there’s really no such thing as “collective sin;” all sin is personal sin. That was part of the importance of the Nuremburg Trials over Nazi leadership: each person is accountable for their choices, regardless of the corruption of the system they are part of. Corruption or “collective sin” is just a label given to the collusion of people who sin together. God will not condemn Israel as a corrupt nation, but rather condemns the wicked persons guilty of wickedness who refuse to repent.
In our gospel reading, Jesus gives us a step-by-step guide on resolving conflicts in the Christian community. Step 1: “If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.” Some translations say, “If your brother sins,” and others say, “If your brother sins against you.” On the one hand, perhaps we should be concerned about our brother sinning at all, since all sins are against God, and an offense against God is much worse than just a sin against you. So out of concern for your brother’s good and salvation, you would want to help him. On the other hand, limiting your correction of sin to only sins against you potentially prevents you from becoming a busy-body correcting everyone of everything. And that’s not good. But there are probably times, especially for people we are closer to, where we ought to correct other sins, too. The key to this first step is that it’s one-on-one, confidentially. It’s done with love, humility, and gentleness. Like St. Maria Goretti, it’s not about you, it’s about your brother’s soul. St. Thomas Aquinas affirms that while love is also a feeling, love primarily is a choice, and the choice is to will the good of the other. Maria Goretti was more fearful for Alessandro Serenelli’s soul than she was for her life. That’s a perfect example of this kind of correction. And this instruction from Jesus is reflected in the Catholic Social Teaching on subsidiarity, which is to solve a problem on the smallest scale effective, as close to the problem as possible. If the problem is one-on-one, try to solve it that way first. If he listens, you have won over your brother. However…
“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.’” It is to further press upon the conscience of your brother that this is a grave matter that he needs to repent of. This is something closer to an intervention. Again, the approach and the object is love, humility, and gentleness. But perhaps also the sin is causing greater damage to the peace of the community.
“If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.” The Greek word for “church” here is ekklesia, which we talked about a few weeks ago: the assembly of the people of God. It doesn’t necessarily mean to denounce them publicly in the church, but take it to the community leadership. There’s still a respect for the person’s confidentiality and honor, and yet, in subsidiarity, the measures taken ascend in scope and authority as needed.
“If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” We see Saint Paul do this in the first letter to the Corinthians. He excommunicates a member of the community for public scandal regarding sexual sin. But he also makes the intention clear: it is out of love and for the spiritual good of the brother who refuses to acknowledge his great need for repentance for his salvation, as well as for the spiritual health of the community. It is the external consequence of their inward disposition that chooses sin over communion. Jesus says to treat them as a gentile or a tax collector. Well, how are supposed to treat a gentile or a tax collector? To evangelize them, to invite them to soften their heart and allow God to change it. We don’t write off anyone as a hopeless cause. Because in love, we will their good, and their ultimate good is eternal salvation.
“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.” We heard Jesus say this to Simon Peter two weeks ago. Today Jesus says it to the twelve. The college of apostles is given the authority over the flocks entrusted to their care to bind and loose the peoples in their community. In other words, to judge with authority on behalf of the church for the good of the church. But only Peter was also given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, the first among the apostles, and only with Peter is there the authority to bind and loose authoritative teaching for the sake of salvation. And of course it is only to be done in conformity with and obedience to the Holy Spirit.
“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.” In this original context, it is Jesus speaking to the apostles. And it is presuming that and obedience toward the Holy Spirit. So we might look at this as exemplified by the ecumenical councils of the Church, when the college of bishops, the successors to the apostles, come together to pray and to make binding decisions for the Church on matters of faith and morals, as well as matters of discipline. They are the two or three gathered in the name of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and when they gather in his name, he’s present in his apostles in a special way, in a powerful way, in an authoritative way.
And finally, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” This similar to a Jewish expression, “…When two sit and there are between them the words of the Torah, the divine presence rests upon them.” The words of the Torah are of course the scriptures, the Word of God, who is incarnate as Jesus. So it’s a Christian version of the same proverb: When we gather in his name, when we gather over the scriptures, he is present, the divine presence rests upon them.
There’s also the more modern version in the Church today: “Where two are three are gathered in my name, a fourth is being talked about.” Which is funny, and sadly often true. But that’s kind of what Jesus is teaching against in our gospel reading. We shouldn’t be gossiping about what people do. We should go to those people personally and talk to them confidentially, to correct them in love. In Christ, we are anointed into his prophetic mission, which means, like Ezekiel, we are called to be obedient to God when we are instructed to admonish the sinner, which is one of the spiritual works of mercy. That’s really difficult in today’s society, when it’s against all sorts of social boundaries that call it offensive to do exactly what God is telling us to do out of love for a wayward brother, which makes it an uncomfortable situation we would rather avoid. But like Ezekiel, we may be held accountable by God for the sin of the sinner we refuse to correct. It’s not self-less love to allow our brother to be lost in sin; it’s putting our comfort before their good. But again, don’t gossip about it, don’t go around as a busy body blabbing about everything you can correct about everybody. But in humility and love, correct gently what the Holy Spirit tells you to address (perhaps with a prayer for the help of St. Maria Goretti), that you may win over your brother, and save his soul, and perhaps yours as well.
The Snarky Vicar 