Scripture Reflection - September 6, 2026

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ezekiel 33: 7-9 | Romans 13: 8-10    | Matthew 18: 15-20

Speaking the Truth in Love

Do you always agree with your sisters or brothers?  Do you always agree with the members of your community or the people you work with?  I daresay none of us agree with others all the time.  Conflicts are inevitable.

Today’s scripture readings, and especially the gospel, remind us we have a responsibility for others, one that may, at times, include correction.  In our society we forget that we are all interdependent and our lives are bound up with one another.  For good or ill, our lives impact on one another.  This is the sacredness of community.

What kind of people must we become if we are to be instruments of communion in a divided world? Jesus is asking us to become people who build bridges rather than walls. In a world where it is so easy to label someone who disagrees with us, dismiss them, or simply walk away from them, Jesus asks us to stay in relationship.

That is not always easy.

It is much easier to talk about someone than to talk with someone. It is easier to complain to another person about what someone has done than to have the difficult conversation that might actually bring healing. It is easier to hold on to our hurt than to risk the vulnerability of saying, “This has hurt me. Can we talk about it?”

Jesus’ way is different. “Go and tell him or her the fault between you and that person alone.”

Notice that Jesus begins with a conversation between two people. There is no public humiliation. No gossip. No taking sides. No attempt to win an argument. There is simply an invitation to relationship.

And perhaps that is where communion begins—with the willingness to sit down with another person and listen.  Listening may be one of the most important ministries we can offer in our divided world. Listening does not mean that we agree with everything another person says.  It means that we recognize the dignity of the person before us.  It means that we are willing to hear the story behind the opinion, the hurt behind the anger, the fear behind the defensiveness.

Sometimes, when we truly listen, we discover that the person we thought we understood is very different from the person we imagined.  Our world desperately needs this kind of listening.

We live in a time of deep polarization.  Families can become divided over politics. Communities can become divided over difficult issues.  Even within the Church, we can find ourselves on opposite sides of questions that matter deeply to us. And when disagreement becomes personal, communion can quickly disappear.

Jesus does not tell us that disagreement will disappear.  He shows us how to live with disagreement without allowing it to destroy relationships.  This is part of our vocation as Christians.  Our world is not meant to be a place where everyone thinks alike.  It is where we learn to love people who are different from us.  And that can be a powerful witness to our divided world.

Perhaps the question for us today is, “What am I doing to bring communion?”

Our lives are bound together. What we say and do affects one another. As followers of Jesus, we are called to make that interconnectedness a source of blessing.  May we live this week committed not merely to being people who believe in communion, but people who bring communion wherever we go.

Sr. Mary Ann Collins, OP