Sept. 6—23rd Sunday in ordinary time

Readings: Ezekiel 33: 7-9; Psalm 95, R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.; Romans 13: 8-10: Gospel—Matthew 18: 15-20

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Today’s Gospel highlights the communitarian aspect of our faith, a community that is gathered in Jesus’ name and united by his presence.

Before this, Jesus likewise, extols the community that prays together. Being one in prayer brings blessings to the community.

Then the final quality of the community we see is in the community’s function to heal and reconcile, on the one hand, and the function to render justice, on the other hand.

The communitarian nature of our faith, now more than ever, is the grace we need to rebuild our church and our society in the wake of this pandemic and the many crises it has triggered.

The widespread suffering due to illness, poverty, hunger, fear and isolation; the widening of the gaps between the rich and the poor, not just economically but also culturally, with the growing disparity in the quality of education; and the growing fear and sense of helplessness are just some of the issues we need to address.

Reboot

At the same time, the pandemic and these crises give us the opportunity to reboot and truly build a better world. As in many times of crisis, such moments can either crush us or define us.

Becoming community could be our defining grace as a church and as families.

I cannot help but think of the longings and hopes that we renew each Advent, as the words of the two songs we used to sing in the Jesuit Novitiate are clearly playing in my mind.

“Panginoon, hanggang kailan kami sa Iyo’y maghihintay? Halika na, magbalik Ka! Pangako Mo’y tupdin Mo na.”

“O come, o come Emmanuel to free your captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice, rejoice o Israel, to you shall come Emmanuel.”

With the Filipino penchant for the ’ber months signaling Christmas, might we not begin first with Advent to awaken in the midst of all that burdens us the grace of our longing for and hope in the Emmanuel, Jesus, God-with-us, to gather us once more as his community?

In this community we can—as Pope Francis repeatedly reminds us—carry conversation, the respectful listening to each other in genuine compassion and care. It is this conversation that deepens our union and leads us to one voice and one spirit to pray.

And when we pray as community, “If two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”

Renewed hope

This renewed longing and hope leading to a community centered on Jesus—sustained and nurtured by conversation and prayer—bring us to the dynamic function of the community to heal and reconcile, to rebuild and renew, but also to purge and make clean, to set things right in a just and fair manner.

The way forward is to build, or rebuild, community in our families, our communities, our church and our nation. This is the choice that the pandemic and the crises have given us.

The tragedy lies perhaps not in what we are going through now, but in the kind of choices that we will or will not make. Today’s Gospel gives us good points to consider and to start from.

I pray we will make the hard choices and choose rightly. Otherwise, we have no one else to blame but ourselves.

If such a tragedy strikes us, we repeat the mistakes that have plagued us for centuries. In the words of Cassius, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

The Lord has laid out the choices and has blessed us with the freedom to make them with the promise of the graces they will bring. —CONTRIBUTED