Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (2026) - Fr Matthew Boland, OP

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us some guidelines about how to deal with ruptures in a community. This presupposes something that is easy to overlook: that we are called to communion in the first place. So, what does this mean, to be called to communion?

One approach is to go back to the beginning of Scripture. In the book of Genesis, we hear that “God created man in his own image, in his own image he created him, male and female he created them.” So, we are created in the image of God. But what is God like? What is his nature? What does it mean to be created in his image?

Through the revelation of Jesus Christ, we now know that God is a Trinity. That is, he is a communion of Persons. Now, there is only one God, that is, we are monotheists. But God is a Trinity of Persons, three Persons, who are one God. The deepest expression of this union of Persons is given by Saint John in his letter, where he tells us that God is love (1 John 4:16). That is God’s nature. And that is the nature of communion, when many exist as one.

We are individually made in God’s image. That means that we should have harmony and communion in ourselves. We are called to love ourselves, that is, to seek harmony of body and soul in their proper order. But we are also called to love one another, as the Church, and, ultimately, all human beings, who are all made in the image of God.

Pope Benedict summed this up nicely when he said, “the human being is created in the image of God, and God himself is love. It is therefore the vocation to love that makes the human person the authentic image of God: Man and woman come to resemble God to the extent that they become loving people.”

We see this call to communion especially in the first community, Adam and Eve, who were called to be one. Unfortunately, shortly after this first call to communion, that of our parents, we hear about their disobedience, and the rupture of communion which that caused. This is the effect of disobedience to God, which is simply called “sin”. Some propose that the word “sin” is etymologically connected to the word “sunder”, that is, “to separate or divide”. Sin divides us primarily from God, but also from one another. We see this consequence most starkly in the children of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, in what is the ultimate rupture of communion: murder.

Happily for us, Jesus came to heal that rupture of communion caused by sin. He took the effects of sin upon himself, and offered us healing through repentance.

But, as we know, we still struggle with sin. That is why a big part of the Christian life is about forgiveness, to be like Christ, who suffered the effects of sin, although he was without sin, and forgave, in order to restore communion.

Now, we know how to react to sin in our own lives: repentance and reconciliation. But sometimes people do the wrong thing to us; they treat us unjustly. How should we react in these cases?

Jesus recommends that, where possible, we carry out what is called “fraternal correction” as we heard in the Gospel. This takes place when we approach the person who has wronged us, alone or with others, in the hope that he will recognise this injustice and communion can be restored.

Now, the motive here cannot be one of vengeance or humiliation. Rather it must be based on concern for the other, love for the other. The basis has to be love, since we are trying to restore communion, which is love, as we reflected on earlier. St Augustine sums it up well, when he says, “Whoever has offended you, in offending you, has inflicted a serious injury upon himself; and would you not care for a brother’s injury?... You must forget the offence you have received but not the injury of one of your brethren” (Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, 82.7). And so, where possible, Jesus counsels us to seek reconciliation when someone has offended us, not out of resentment for the injury done, but out of concern for the one who has done wrong, and out of a desire for communion.

This may be difficult – human relations are often fraught. But, if we seek this communion of love and forgiveness through fraternal correction, what will be the results? Well, our Lord says in another place in the Gospel: “if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, I shall be there with them.” That is, the fruit of communion results in a deep relationship with the Father, and the presence of Jesus, and, therefore, the presence of the mutual love of the Father and the Son, who is the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray, then, brothers and sisters, that God send us the Spirit of truth and wisdom, that is, the Holy Spirit, so that through forgiveness and fraternal correction we might become one with one another, and through this communion, one with God.

Fr Matthew Boland, OP is the Master of Students, assigned to St Dominic's Priory, Melbourne.