Twenty Third Sunday Of The Year

From catechism lessons, we remember that our goal is to save our souls. The readings for the twenty third
Sunday remind us that this is not a private matter but we do it collectively, always being concerned
about the well-being of a local community and the church. The Gospel suggests a three-stage process
for reconciling a public sinner to his/her community, with the emphasis on keeping the issue at the
lowest profile possible, but always demanding the end of offensive behavior and the genuine change
of harmful attitudes. A good illustration might be the encounter of Jesus with a prostitute. He waited
for the accusers to leave the two of them alone before forgiving the repentant woman and telling her:
“sin no more”.

The power of binding and loosing (judging who can be excluded from the community of believers or
from receiving the Eucharist) was given to Peter and his successors. It has been used as a last resort and
never in the spirit of revenge.

In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel reminds his audience about their responsibility to try to correct
a wrongdoer. At the same time, they are not ultimately responsible for the salvation of that other
individual.

Fr. Antoni Baranowski, SJ