True Love of Neighbor: Criticism

September 7: Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time:

Ezekiel 33:7-9; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

“If you do not speak out...” (Ezekiel 33:8).

How often do we confess the sin of not saying something? Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Ezekiel warns us what will happen if we don’t say anything. The key word here is responsibility.

We have known since Genesis that we are “our brother’s keeper.” Baptism made us more. Now we are the “keepers” of society itself. As consecrated, anointed “stewards of the kingship of Christ,” we are “response-able” for everything on earth that is not submitted to God’s reign of love.

Actually, we are “response-accountable.” We may not be “able” to right what is wrong. But we are responsible for making a prudent judgment about what we can do. Our greatest sin may be the failure to say anything.

Jesus tells us how—in three steps, beginning with “go and discuss the fault between you and the other person alone.” Then go, taking mutual friends to facilitate. As a last resort, appeal to authority. This is one of the most ignored instructions in the Gospels. We usually brood in silence, gossip destructively, gather a lynch mob, or denounce people secretly to authorities. But just keeping silence is a sin. It is a refusal of our baptismal responsibility.

Ezekiel says we will be judged on the judgments we don’t express.

PRAY: “Lord, open my lips.”

PRACTICE: Speak, write to your pastor, bishop, political representatives.