09.05.2020 Homily

The gospel reading today and for the coming few weeks will be taken from the 18th chapter of St. Matthew's gospel. And the 18th chapter, if you will, lays out the order which should govern the life of the Christian community. It's in that chapter that Matthew records the teaching of Jesus about the community of faith, the church. 

We learn very early in the life of the church in the second generation after the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, that the church is to be described in having four characteristics. The church is the church of Jesus Christ when the church gathers for Eucharist. So to be a Eucharistic people is, if you will, the first mark of the church. The church is committed to the daily prayer, the morning and evening prayer, so a praying community. That's another mark of the church. The church is committed to the apostolic teaching. That is the church is committed to the gospel, that the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes the norm for the life of the church. And the fourth mark is that the church is to be preserved in unity and peace, so that the fellowship of the community must be maintained at all costs. 

Now, the first three of those qualities, the Eucharist, the daily prayer, and the teaching of the gospel, happen without an awful lot of dissension. But the fourth quality, the maintaining of the unity of the church, the unity of the community, that's where problems arise. And so the teaching today in the gospel is Matthew's reflection on Jesus’ teaching as to how the community is going to settle its differences. People are going to disagree. People will harm each other. People will do things that will cause pain to each other. Yet they are members of the community, and somehow the community needs to find and have a way of reconciling that and holding that community together.

So Matthew says that Jesus tells us that if there's a member of the community who's done some wrong to you, don't talk about the person behind their back. Don't stew over it, go and have it out with the person face to face. Put it on the line. And if the person will listen to you, then the problem is resolved. Then you've won this person back to you. But if the person will not listen to you, then take a couple members of the community and go with them to see the person again, because what transpires then will be able to be witnessed by a couple of persons other than yourself.
And if the person will still not listen, then take it to the community of the church. And if the person will not listen to the church, then that person is to be treated like a tax collector or a Gentile. 

Now that doesn't mean that at that point, you can wash your hands of that person. That doesn't mean you can turn your back on that person. That doesn't mean that that person has no greater claim on you. Yes, the community has meant to do exactly what Jesus did. And Jesus, he just went out to the tax collector. Jesus went out to the Gentile. Jesus went out to the person who was on the edge. Jesus went out to those for whom no one would have contact. Jesus went out to see, to heal, and to reconcile with that person. And so if the person moves beyond the church, if the person is told you can no longer be with this community, that also means that the members of the community have a responsibility to continue to search for that person.

Now the very prayer of the church describes how all of this is held together. When we start the prayer of the Eucharist this afternoon, we will initially remember what Jesus did the night before he died. How He took bread and blessed it and gave it to His disciples and said, "Take this. This is my body." And how He took the cup of wine and blessed it and gave it to them and said, "This is the cup of my blood." And then we will pray that all those who share in the gift of His body and His blood, be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit. So we begin by praying for the unity of the church. We begin by asking God to guarantee, to strengthen that bond that binds us together. 

Then the next thing we will do is we will pray for the Church Universal. We pray that the church may live in peace with Francis, the Bishop of Rome, and with Bernard, our Bishop, and with the entire people your Son has gained for you. That there may be peace and unity in this large group, this universal church, those who share with us the church on earth. 

And then we pray for those who've gone before us. Those who share the church of eternal life, those who share what we're all called ultimately to share in--that mystery of union with God. And so we remember those who have died and we remember the Lord's promise to all people. We pray that all who have died may be brought into the presence of His glory. And finally, we pray for ourselves. We pray for those of us who are gathered here. We pray for this community. We pray that united with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Saint Joseph, and united with all the angels and the saints, that with them we may praise and glorify God, our Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ. For it is through Him and with Him and in Him that all glory and honor is yours forever and ever. Amen. 

So in the very prayer of the Eucharist, the church's prayer is essentially a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift, and a prayer that God will keep this community in union with each other, That God will preserve the peace of the community. Before we come to the Eucharist, what do we do? Peace be with you. Before we come to the Eucharist, what do we say? The Lord Jesus Christ said to His apostles, peace I leave you, My peace I give you. Look not upon our sins, but upon the faith of the community. Grant us peace and unity according to Your will. It's the very stuff of which the church is, and today's gospel reading is simply a three-step process seeking to find a way to heal the breach whenever it would occur. 

Well, that rule is as good today as it was 2000 years ago. And when differences arise between members of the community, that's a good rule of thumb as to how to come to some solution. That we do it up front, that we do at face-to-face, that we do it seeking a resolution, seeking reconciliation. We pray that that gift may be given to us, and that we may live out that gift in our lives.