Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, September 9, 2023

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, A, Vigil
September 9, 2023

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when he will discuss with us two important realities in our faith: prayer and fraternal correction.
• The first is prayer. Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there will I be in their midst.” This is an incredible promise given to us by Jesus, yet we have to understand first what it means and why he said it. It does not mean that whenever two or more Christians are in the same place doing anything whatever that Jesus is automatically there. It doesn’t mean that whatever we ask him together will be heard when we want and the way we want, which is why, sometimes, when family members gather to pray for a loved one’s recovery from a terminal illness, the person does not always get better in this world. Jesus, rather, promises to be present when we are gathered “in his name.” To gather in Jesus’ name means to gather in his person seeking what Jesus seeks. While we can obviously pray to Jesus when we’re alone and should, Jesus particularly incentivizes gathering together in his name. Many people today think it’s sufficient to have a so-called “private” relationship with Jesus, to pray on their own and sometimes claim that’s an adequate substitution for coming to Mass or praying as a family. It’s very clear, however, that Jesus wanted us to come together to pray. When his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he taught them to pray “Our Father,” not “My Father” … “who art in heaven,” for the obvious reason that he wanted us to pray it with others. Even when we pray the “Our Father” alone, he wants us to remember others, which is why he taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive…,” etc. Jesus came down from heaven to earth to found a family, and he wants us to live and to pray as a loving family.
• This leads us to the second thing he teaches us in the Gospel this Sunday, which is what the saints have traditionally called “fraternal correction.” Whenever we gather together with others in the name of the One who saves us from our sins, as a family whose members deeply love each other, then it’s obvious that we should always desire lovingly to help the other members of the family to overcome any obstacles flowing from sin that prevent communion with God or each other. Jesus tells us, “If your brother sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you. … If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” These stages show us the effort the Lord asks of us to accompany those who make mistakes, those who sin, so that they’re not lost. Whenever a brother or sister has wandered through sin, whenever he or she is going off the deep end, Jesus tells us to gather with that brother or sister in his name and try to help that sibling realize and begin to overcome his or her sin.
• Jesus’ teaching on fraternal correction is challenging. We are living in a culture that thinks the greatest value is to be “nice.” Many act as if they believe that we really should never correct anyone else, because that would make us seem “judgmental” or “offensive” or “harsh.” They assert it’s important to be civil, to agree to disagree, to live and let live, to mind our business, and to be tolerant. But this mentality often comes from a lack of courage, a lack of seriousness about what sin really does, and a lack of love for them and for God. If we really care for a person, we’ll have the guts and the love to intervene, because we know that sin kills those who sin and does immeasurable harm to others. Another reason why Jesus’ teaching on fraternal correction is challenging today is because some who have misunderstood what it really means have given it a bad name. They look at this teaching as a license for ripping other people apart. We’ve all suffered from people who are chronic complainers, incessant naggers, who really can’t say anything nice about others, but who use the faith as a weapon to tear others down in order to try to build themselves up. We don’t want to be numbered among them for obvious reasons. But even though such people clearly need to take the planks from their eyes to see clearly to help others charitably take the specks out their eyes, Jesus doesn’t permit us to use them as an excuse. Fraternal correction is a duty of love, in which we approach others as humble fellow sinners trying to help them do better, uniting with them in the name of the Lord to battle sin together. We’re like one sick person helping another sick person to know where to go to get medicine and find healing.
• Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. The Lord is calling us to be his instrument to help our husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, friend, boss, employee, pastor, priest or religious sister or brother, teacher or pupil — anyone whose conduct is clearly not what the Lord wants it to be. If we know of someone living in a sinful relationship, the Lord wants us, like John the Baptist before Herod, to be his voice calling them, gently, lovingly, and firmly to conversion. If someone is addicted to drugs, or booze, or pornography, the Lord wants us to intervene. If someone is missing Mass on Sundays, the Lord is summoning us to try to persuade them to think about the good of their soul. If someone is lying, cheating, stealing, cursing, gossiping or setting bad example, the Lord is counting on us to speak to them about it and ask them to change. How do we do this? The particular means should vary from person to person, but there are a few general rules.
  • First, we should pray for the person and ask the Lord to help us see how best to communicate his truth to him or her.
  • Second, the saints propose that we make some small sacrifices for the person, like fasting. As Jesus teaches us in the Gospel, some demons are cast out “only by prayer and fasting” (Mt 17:21; Mk 9:29). Sacrificing for the other person also helps to do everything we’re doing out of true love for the other person.
  • Third, we should act at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way. We don’t want to ambush anyone, when the person will be shocked and defenseless. Jesus says we should first go to the person in private, not write an open letter, with a meek and humble tone, so that the other person realizes that our goal is not to make a point or to win an argument but to win a brother or sister, and so that both of us will be brought into greater loving communion with Jesus. If it doesn’t work in private, then the Lord tells us to try it with a couple of other people the person trusts and who can be trusted to keep things in private. Hopefully the added witness and love will be enough to convince the person to correct his or her behavior and, if necessary, seek help. This is what happens, of course, with interventions done to help alcoholics and drug users. But if the person persists in wrongdoing, we should go to the Church, to those who can join in prayer, and if the particular offense warrants it, to the hierarchy that can lovingly give the person an appropriate ecclesiastical admonition to warn of the eternal danger he or she is risking and may be told that by that behavior he is separating himself from God and his community. When Jesus says that we should treat someone as a “gentile or a tax collector,” he’s calling us to pray for them like we would pray for those who clearly are no longer living members of our community because they’re too addicted to sin. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners and was called publicly their friend, so he’s not telling us to write them off; rather he’s telling them to treat them like a non-Christian and pray, fast and work for their conversion.
• The flip-side of this teaching on fraternal correction, of course, is that when someone comes to us with a Christian correction, we should be grateful, even if at first we think the person may be off the mark with the criticism. Such an attempt shows us that that person cares enough about us to try to help us become better. These are our real friends, who love us so much that they’ll risk their friendship with us to try to give us the help we need. We should see Jesus in them, patiently forming us into the person he calls us to be, and respond with gratitude.
• “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst.” As we prepare to gather on Sunday, we thank the Lord in advance not just for remaining “in our midst,” but for entering inside of us, so that, together with him, we may be courageous in receiving and making fraternal correction, so that one day all of us may be reunited in that eternal kingdom where communion with God and with each other will know no end.

The Gospel passage on which the homily was based was: 

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