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Breaking Open the Word

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In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us a practical, methodical way to deal with confronting sinful behavior in others. First, we are to privately confront the situation. This step of course is often skipped in reality, because as sinners, we generally love to gossip about the sins of others without doing what love demands – private discussion. This of course turns us away from love – which is willing the good of the other. This is willing the harm of the other and is of course sinful – potentially as bad as whatever sin we might be “confronting”. Jesus then offers a second step – to bring witnesses, and should even that fail, to bring it before the church. This progressive approach means that the hope and intent is repentance and restoration, not self-righteous vindictiveness. Jesus also points out the role of the apostles (and by extension, the Church), to “bind” and “loosen”. Clearly, the Church has the power to teach, correct, reconcile and discipline. This gospel passage ends in the familiar “Where two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them”. It’s interesting to note that this is typically generalized to mean that Jesus is present in any gathering, but the context in which it appears is the difficult work in this gospel passage – the Church exercising her authority to seek God’s will and restore what is broken.

September 6

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This reading combines a question by Peter, Jesus’ answer and a parable that expands on the issue of forgiveness. Peter’s question about how often we just forgive a sister or brother leads to an answer that seems rather generous. To Peter’s surprise, however, Jesus suggests a far more generous standard. The statement about 77 times comes from Old Testament book of Genesis. In Genesis 4:23-24 a man (Lamech) declares that if anyone hurts him he will take revenge “seventy- fold,” which means that his revenge is limitless. Jesus opposes such endless vengeance. His followers must be like God, whose mercy is without limit. If we want to be part of God’s kingdom, we must imitate God who reigns over it. The parable doesn’t quite fit Peter’s question. It doesn’t describe forgiving someone many times but forgiving them on a large scale. The debt of the first servant is so great that he couldn’t have ever repaid it. The second servant owes an amount that could be repaid. Although the situation of the first servant changed, the servant himself did not. When his debt was forgiven, he did not embrace his experience of mercy. Because he didn’t share the forgiveness he received, he lost it. The story warns us that God’s forgiveness must be shared if we are to keep it.

September 13

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This parable unique to Matthew’s gospel, never fails to rattle its listeners with the unfair situation it presents. The interaction between the vineyard owner and the workers causes great anger and frustration because we base justice on human standards instead of the ways of God. Who would pay those hired at the end of the day the same wage as those hired at the start of the day especially when working in the scorching Palestinian sun? This seems totally unreasonable. The parable concerns a vineyard, a master of the house who is also the lord of the vineyard, his foreman and the workers/laborers. The vineyard represents the Kingdom that Jesus came to establish, the new Covenant Church on earth. The Master the of the house and Lord of the vineyard is God, the Father. The "foreman" who will pay the wage of eternal salvation is Jesus Christ. The workers and laborers are all God’s people who choose to work for His Kingdom planting “good seed”. And the "harvest" is a metaphor for the gathering of souls into the Church and into Heaven after the Last Judgment at the end of the Age of humanity. The "first" called to be "laborers" for the harvest of souls into the Church of the New Covenant were the Jews. But like the rich young man, many declined the "call" to the mission. The "last" to be called are the faithful remnant of Israel (Jesus's Apostles and disciples) and the Gentiles who responded to the call of the Messiah and His Kingdom of the Church. They would accept His call to labor in the world to spread the Gospel of salvation across the face of the earth. They would be the "first" into the Kingdom of Heaven, whose gates were thrown open at Jesus's Resurrection.

September 20

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September 27

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October 4

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