In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows how wounds can be healed. When someone offends us, we have a guideline for our reaction: our first task is not to gossip or retaliate. The Gospel calls us to approach the person privately, speaking truth to “win” a brother or sister, not an argument.
Father Fernando Armellini scj helps us see that fraternal correction is an act of rescue. The person who has offended us still remains a brother or sister. Each widening circle, private conversation, trusted witnesses, and the community, must always be meant to recover communion with the person, never to humiliate or condemn. Even the unresponsive person must be regarded through the eyes of Jesus, who approached outsiders and sinners with love.
I came across a woman who struggled to save her marriage with an alcoholic and abusive husband. Her argument was simple: “If my husband had a terminal illness, I would care for him with the utmost love and compassion. To me, his alcoholism is another type of illness, which could be terminal. The Lord brought him into my life, perhaps because he knows I will take care of him and I will not abandon him.”
Father Ron Rolheiser omi reminds us that Christ overcame division by absorbing hatred and returning love, receiving bitterness and giving back graciousness. Reconciliation requires the spiritual strength to hold pain without transmitting it, to speak honestly without cruelty, and to forgive without pretending that wrongdoing does not matter.
Reconciliation is not achieved by human skill alone. Christ enters every conversation, softens hardened hearts, and transforms conflict into a doorway for grace.
Today, we may ask: Is there someone I discuss with others but avoid addressing directly? Am I seeking restoration or vindication? May Jesus give us courage to initiate dialogue, humility to listen, and mercy to loosen every chain of resentment.
Father Josekutty Mathew CMF
Claretian Publications
bibleclaret.org
