READINGS FOR THIS SUNDAY: EZ 33:7-9 ROM 13:8-10 MT 18:15-20
In the first reading, the people of Judah are in exile and demoralized by their enslavement and the destruction of Jerusalem. God tells Ezechial to respond by telling the people that God loves them and wants them to live, but they must first repent of the sins that caused their destruction.
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of how the Church must address the sins of those within their community. It is important to note that the word Church is not isolated to the clergy caste of the Church. Rather, the Church is the ENTIRE community of the Church, inclusive of the laity, who will address the misconduct of all the members, INCLUDING the clergy. This is an important distinction.
All this “judging” begs the question as to what is the criteria by which we, as Church, are to judge the misconduct of others in our Community of Faith. Paul in his letter to the Romans defines this very succinctly, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10, NRSV)
The entire theme of Sacred Scripture is all about “relationship”; God’s relationship with humanity, humanity’s relationship with God; and, how that relationship is reflected in humanity’s relationship with one another. As Paul so clearly expresses, if we truly live the Great Commandment of love, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”, people will not cheat and steal, people will not harm or kill one another, people will not covet those people who are important to others, nor anything that others may possess, because in bringing grave harm to their relationship with others, they bring grave harm to their relationship with God.
In our living the Great Commandment of love that Jesus gave to us, does this mean we can never be angry? Jesus felt and expressed anger toward those who despoiled the Temple with greed and commerce. Jesus felt and expressed anger toward the behavior of his own religious leaders and sought to correct their behavior. Anger in itself is not a “bad” feeling. Anger is only harmful when it consumes a person and his/her rage turns to hate, and that hate evolves in a harmful act of violence, physical or emotional toward another human being.
We live in a time of great polarization. I feel great anger, and at times, rage when I see the deliberate and criminal separation and imprisonment of immigrant children from their families by our government. I feel great anger, and at times, rage when I see how this pandemic has been so mishandled by those in political power and has lead to over 189,000 needless deaths, many families unemployed and experiencing hunger and poverty as a result of that mismanagement. I feel this great anger, and at times, rage because these actions or lack of actions are a great assault on Jesus’ commandment to love one another as Jesus loved us.
Selfishness and greed are the greatest threats to humanity evolving into becoming that which God intended humanity to be, and to what Jesus demonstrated what humanity could become. The only way, to combat this horrific state of disunity and destruction today is not through violence. It is not attainable through destruction. The only way is by living the Great Commandment of Love. And, it is so hard …
