by Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
Let’s place today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 18:15-20) within a wider context. Read from Mt 18:1, which opens with the disciples asking Jesus: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Everyone wants to be “top dog”. Jesus teaches them, and us, that unless we “change and become like little children” we “will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”Rather than being puffed up with our own sense of “importance”, we should be concerned about the least among us. Verses 5-10 contain some powerful words of advice about not leading others astray. And immediately before today’s Gospel reading, there is the well-known analogy Jesus uses about the lost sheep. Note, “it is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” God does not want us to stray from the right path. But He gives us free will to choose which path we wish to follow.
In today’s reading, Jesus teaches us how to correct our brothers and sisters who have gone astray or who have wronged us in any way. In resolving conflict, reconciliation and restoration should be our aim. And if on a face-to-face basis we can’t succeed, we should involve others and even the community in seeking reconciliation. What if the offender refuses to listen to the community? St Augustine of Hippo says:
“Jesus seems to say that we have the right to abandon stubborn and obdurate offenders and treat them like social outcasts” But we know that “Jesus refuses no one who is ready to receive pardon, healing, and restoration…we must not give up on stubborn offenders, but, instead make every effort to win them with the grace and power of God’s healing love and wisdom.”
To promote right relationships and heal our troubled country/world, we must embrace the concept of “restorative justice”. Jesus also advises us in verse 19 to pray and ask our Father in heaven for anything that we wish. And remember: “Where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.”
Prayer and action must go together. We should adopt Cardinal Joseph Cardijn’s See-Judge-Act methodology. In May this year the Church marked the 50th Anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical, Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress), in which the Pope adopted the See-Judge-Act method. Paragraphs 236 & 237 of the document states:
“There are three stages which should normally be followed in the reduction of social principles into practice. First, one reviews the concrete situation; secondly, one forms a judgment on it in the light of these same principles; thirdly, one decides what in the circumstances can and should be done to implement these principles. These are the three stages that are usually expressed in the three terms: see, judge, act. It is important for our young people to grasp this method and to practise it. Knowledge acquired in this way does not remain merely abstract, but is seen as something that must be translated into action.”
If we are to live virtuous lives and stay on the right path; if we are to correct our brothers and sisters who have gone astray, we must “put on Christ”. As Ronald Cox said in his book: The Gospel Story: “You cannot think like a Christian, until you think like Christ. Or, if you prefer St Paul’s way of saying it, ‘Yours is to be the same mind which Christ Jesus showed’ (Phil 2: 5)”.
We have a duty to seek to transform the world e.g. by eliminating unjust structures; promoting justice and peace in our communities and in the world. Reflect on the words of Pope Paul VI (Apostolic Letter: Octogesima Adveniens – on the 80th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum):
“Let each one examine himself, to see what he has done up to now, and what he ought to do. It is not enough to recall principles, state intentions, point to crying injustice and utter prophetic denunciations; these words will lack real weight unless they are accompanied for each individual by a livelier awareness of personal responsibility and by effective action. It is too easy to throw back on others responsibility for injustice, if at the same time one does not realize how each one shares in it personally, and how personal conversion is needed first. …The Church invites all Christians to take up a double task of inspiring and of innovating, in order to make structures evolve, so as to adapt them to the real needs of today”.
