Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading:: Ezekiel 33:7-9 – If you do not speak to the wicked man, I will hold you responsible for his death.

Responsorial Psalm:Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 – O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Second Reading:Romans 13:8-10 – Your only debt should be the debt of mutual love.

Gospel:Matthew 18:15-20 – If your brother listens to you, you have won back your brother.

There is a widely held belief that, in a case of an offence against someone, the offender ought to go the offended and initiate the process of reconciliation. It is a common sense practice that if someone offends you, you expect the person to come to you for reconciliation. Everybody has been operating under this unwritten rule which the society taught us from our infancy. However, although the belief is wide-spread, it has almost always met with minimal success. But ironically, the insignificant success it has been recording through the ages has not made people to question this belief. Why is it that this belief and practice that the offender must first go to the offended for reconciliation has not been witnessing successful outcome? Could the supposed roles of the offender and the offended be reversed in order to witness better results?

Curiously, from creation, God designed that it has to the person who is offended that should initiate the process of reconciliation by going to the offender, and not the other way round as has been erroneously held and practiced. A few biblical citations will help clarify this:

1. When Adam offended God by eating the forbidden fruit, it was not Adam who went looking for God; it was rather God who came looking for Adam: “Adam, Adam, where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).
2. In the episode concerning Joseph and his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt, it was Joseph (the one offended) who initiated the process of reconciliation with his brothers (the offenders). He told them: “Come closer to me… I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here…” (cf., Genesis 45:4ff).
3. In the parable of the lost sheep, it was not the lost sheep but the owner who took the pains of searching for the lost one (Matthew 18:12ff).
4. In the story of the incarnation, it was not the sinful humanity who went up to God for reconciliation; it was God who came down to us in Jesus Christ pleading to be reconciled with him.

It is in keeping with this original design that Jesus teaches in the gospel of today that, “If your brother does something wrong (against you), go and have it out with him”. It has always been easier to effect reconciliation if the process is initiated by the person who was offended rather than waiting for the offender to initiate it. You may wish to try it out yourself and you will be marvelled at the rapid success. However, one may ask: Why should the person who was offended take the extra stress and pain of first going to the offender for reconciliation, then taking one or two persons with him in case he did not succeed in the first try, and finally, reporting to the community if the previous two efforts fail? Well, the simple answer is that when we realize that anyone who sins, sins in ignorance and therefore, ought to be pitied instead of maligned, it makes it easier for the person offended to approach the offender for reconciliation. Every sin comes about as a result of ignorance on the part of the sinner. This is exactly what Jesus meant when he prayed on the cross for his executioners thus: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”. In the same way, the person who offended is sinning in ignorance; hence, he/she should be enlightened. Enlightenment here takes the form of “going to have it out with the person” and achieve a reconciliation, or, speaking to warn the person in order not to be guilty of culpable silence which the prophet Ezekiel condemned in the first reading: “If you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death”. If, therefore, not for any other thing, at least in order not to be guilty of the offender’s sin, the person who was offended should initiate the process of reconciliation.

Jesus concluded this discourse by saying that if after privately going to the offender for reconciliation, if after taking one or two other persons to go for the process of reconciliation, and if after reporting to the community for the same purpose, and the offender still feels indignant and unremorseful, then he/she should be treated like tax collectors or Gentiles. However, the revealing question that lies underneath this statement is this: How did Jesus himself treat tax collectors and sinners? Did he treat them ignobly or did he treat them with compassion? If the latter, then there lies the secret of how to treat our most difficult opponents and offenders. There also lies the soul of Christianity and the secret of Enlightenment.