Love, and do what you will - always!

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Ez 33, 7-9; Rom 13, 8-10; Mt 18, 15-20

Love, and do what you will

A friend of mine, Daniel, found a new job in a computer company and since we were good friends, he invited me to visit him in his new office. Behind him he had this huge, poster with a vintage design. In Large script there was written, "Love and do what you will!" As soon as I saw it, I asked him whether he was a fan of St Augustine. "St Who?" He he asked, with a confused face? "I just bought the poster because the words spell out my philosophy of life!" Needless to say, I took the opportunity to give my good friend Daniel a mini lecture on who St Augustine was and the context in which he used these words in his 7th Homily on the First Epistle of John (8).

It was only when I was driving back home that I realised that I too had fallen prey to a superficial and comfortable interpretation of love. I was lecturing my good friend Daniel not so much out of charity towards him but perhaps more out of self-interest.

We want others to change, but...

Whenever we are involved in a conflict with others, or any sort of misunderstanding, many times we expect others to change! We think that we can change the habits of our spouses (s/he always keeps clothes lying around!), we think that we can change the way how our colleagues at work think (they are all so hard headed!), we think that we can change our parents (they ask so many questions!) we think that we can change our children (they hardly ever call!). However we know that how others behave is largely beyond our control. If there is anyone whom can we can be sure that we can change, it is nobody but our selves!

This is one lesson that the readings of today's liturgy can teach us today: How can we change others? I will not keep you in suspense and give it away immediately. We help others change only if we are ready to change in the first place. Let us see how.

What are my motivations for being prophetic?

First, like Ezekiel in the First Reading, we have a duty to be prophetic, to teach, to correct others and to denounce all that is evil. However I might discover that sometimes, that my motivation for denouncing evil is not always love. Sometimes my motivation is simply that I might pride myself with being righteous and while making the other person feel guilty. Or else I might correct others not for their own good or for the good of the people who are being harmed by their actions, but simply because I am being negatively affected - otherwise I probably would not have spoken out at all!

If I am to correct anyone, I must do it in love. Remember the poster: Love and do what you will - but love first! And again, Paul, in the Second reading today: "Love is the fulfillment of the law!" And true love, true charity is always and only expressed in justice, otherwise it is no love at all. We correct each other out of genuine and authentic love for the other and not out of concern for ourselves. This is what makes love painful, because it must also involve giving up of one's life for another person.

At that point we usually discover two things. First, the reasons why we want to other person to change become much clearer, and we can focus on what is really essential. Second, we usually become ready to accompany the person until he or she changes.

A-cum-pani(s)-ing the other

This is why Jesus says that if other the person does not listen to you, bring with you the community. Accompaniment equals community. Accompaniment implies companionship, which comes from the two words "cum panis", two or more who eat bread together. The community has a responsibility to help the person change. In other words, the community has the responsibility of accompanying, and most of all, of being a witness of this transforming love.

Community, a witness to love

We say that the Church must be prophetic and denounce evil. This is true, but it is only effective if the Church, - you and I - are witnesses of love which is the antidote to evil. A witness of love given by the community is the greatest way in which we can be prophetic. In one of his speaches in Columbia,yesterday the Pope said that our work will bear fruit only so long as we are in unity with Christ, bound and rooted in him. We can do this by being true witnesses of love and communion, where nobody is overlooked or excluded. There is an old story about St Francis of Assisi, who once told one of his confreres go an preach together in the village village. St Francis and this other friar spent the whole day going around the village. When at sunset they returned to their convent, the friar told St Francis, "We have spent a whole day in the village but we have forgotten to preach!" St Francis told him, "The witness of fraternal love that we have shown each other is the greatest sermon that we could have ever given!"

Treating others as Gentiles and Tax Collectors

My favourite phrase in today's Gospel is a Jesus' advice to treat all those who would not listen as a Gentile or a tax collector. At first blush we might think that Jesus is saying, exclude him or her from the community, it is not worth wasting your precious energy with him or her. But when we stop and think how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors, we notice that Jesus is asking of us something completely different. Jesus was not afraid to approach Gentiles, and he treated them with extra care. He offered them words of encouragement and made sure that even they may discover the gift of God's universal love for them. Think of the Centurian: he was a Gentile, yet Jesus healed his servant and praised him for his great faith. Likewise, Jesus walked with tax collectors and shared meals with them, constantly calling them to conversion and to follow him, as he did with St Matthew himself, the author of this same Gospel, who was a tax collector, and Zaccheus, who was a tax collector as well.

Jesus concludes by saying, "When two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Our salvation, our sanctity and holiness is not a personal project: it is something that we must go together. We do this by correcting others in love, and only in love, by being a community that witnesses to this love and accompanies others, and by realising that we too always need to heed Jesus' call to convert and follow him anew.