Today’s readings: Ez. 33, 7-9; Rom. 13, 8-10; Matt. 18, 15-20.

We are going through rough times and there are clear signs of this. But signs need to be read. In the mid-19th century, the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard was rather pessimistic about his times. He had no faith that Christianity could be a dynamic force of change because, for him, it had been watered down.

In today’s first reading the prophet Ezekiel was appointed watchman for the house of Israel with the mission to give a warning of impending danger. The fact that he was in Babylon ministering to Judah was more than an indication that God had not totally abandoned his people. Like Kierkegaard we can be tempted to become pessimists. But we have Ezekiel’s mission to watch out and read the writing on the wall.

A major highlight in today’s readings is what Paul writes to to the Romans: “Love is the fulfillment of the law”, because it goes beyond what the law demands and it is not duty-bound. From today’s gospel we gather that already the Jewish-Christian community for whom Matthew is writing was seeking to translate Jesus’ precept of love in juridical terms. Communities need the security that normally law provides.

So we very often find ourselves in the contradiction between what love demands and what the law permits. And since orthodoxy has many a time become an obsession rather than an ideal to be achieved, we tend to give priority to law and order, and little attention to people’s sensibilities. This is the virus in Church life which puts administration above true pastoral concern.

Little do we notice that Jesus had already resolved this dilemma with a new approach which was radically different from that of the law-makers of his time. Pastorally speaking, the Church’s main focus cannot be law and order, but rather that more people gather in the name of Jesus who remains, for those who believe, the sole guarantee of true access to God and to salvation.

In line with the vision outlined by Ezekiel and in his love for mankind, Jesus took upon himself the burden of our sins, irrespective of our merits. He died for all unconditionally. This demands of us that we find an exit from the blind alley of contradictions in which juridically we continue to put ourselves.

Christianity can still be a dynamic force for change. It provides the key to read the signs that are becoming clear. We cannot preach love to people and give them the law. We cannot proclaim universality where God is concerned and have an obsession for boundaries. We cannot believe in God’s infinite mercy and at the same time dictate its limits.

The vision that comes out from today’s readings is that of a Church that is not sent out to preach reconciliation and forgiveness but to witness in the first place that reconciliation and forgiveness are possible.

Ezekiel and Jesus in Matthew both point to our responsibilities towards evil-doers, and hence to our commitment as believers to justice, mercy, hope and redemption. Jesus had a radically different logic where outcasts were concerned. He took upon himself the sin of everyone.

In today’s wounded and fragmented world the Church of Christ has no other option. Watching over society, as Ezekiel did in Babylon, and according to Jesus’ words, means and demands being perceptive and understanding as God is with us all. Forgiveness and reconciliation are not merely to be understood on the level of personal and intimate relationships. There is also social forgiveness and the commitment of those who follow Christ not to shun responsibility for the social evils that afflict society.

We may exalt at the downfall of modern-day dictatorships. But we are in no way exonerated of our political responsibilities for all the suffering that has been and is still being perpetuated. We are not innocent bystanders just throwing responsibilities on the evil-doers or even on God himself. Jesus highlights the power that resides in believing and in interceding for the world and gives us the explicit mandate to be co-workers with him in its redemption.

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