For the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A, 2020)
Jesus said to his disciples: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother."--Matthew 18:15 It can be easy for us to look back on the stories found in the gospels and imagine that those women and men listening to Jesus we ideal disciples, living in perfect harmony with one another. If we read the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Saint Paul, however, we quickly realize that this idyllic community was never a reality. From the earliest days, the Church experienced divisions, disagreements, and dis-ease as believers tried to figure out how to live out the teachings of Jesus individually and as a community of believers. In fact, many of the difficulties we experience in our parishes or religious communities today are the same sorts of challenges faced by those first generations of Christians. The Gospel of Matthew was composed sometime around the year 85. By this time, the ...