RESPONSIBILITY AND CHARITY TOWARDS NEIGHBOUR

Reflection for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time - 06.09.2026 (Year A)

First Reading: Ezek 33:7-9 Second Reading: Rom 13:8-10 Gospel: Mt 18:15-20

Dear friends in Jesus Christ we are in the Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time. The readings of today invite us to be responsible and charitable towards our neighbour. As we know very well ‘love’ is the hallmark of Christianity. Our Lord summarized all the commandments in two commandments of love; love for God and love for neighbour (Mk 12:30-31). In the second reading, St. Paul tells the people to do everything in love. When there is love in the person and in the community, all the laws get fulfilled automatically (Rom 13:10). This love also involves the good of the wicked. In the perspective of Jesus, our neighbour is not the person who is residing next to our home. Our neighbour is any person who needs our help and for whom we can certainly lend some help – as expounded in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus enlarges that help from material dimension to spiritual dimension. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the help offered is material. The good Samaritan provides material aid to a suffering person. The intervention of good Samaritan was right, timely and praise worthy. His involvement in that unfortunate situation helped the dying man recover his life. Similarly, one needs to help people recover from spiritual death – the eternal death. We need to intervene, when we sense that the life of the other person – our neighbour – is heading towards destruction.

In the Gospel, Jesus lays down the procedure to offer a help for a person who is heading towards eternal death. When we see that the thoughts and actions of our neighbour is going in wrong path, we need to tell that person privately. The motive behind this act must be charity. We must intend the conversion of that person. Therefore, we need to be very gentle and kind in doing this act. If needed, we may also need to be diplomatic. When the person is not receptive to our kind gesture and continue in the path of wickedness, the Lord suggests us to gather few more people and reprimand her/him with proofs. Here too, the motive must be, the conversion of the wrong person. Approaching the wicked person with proof of her/his wrongdoings is not to denigrate the person but to make her/him understand where s/he has gone wrong. As a third step, the Lord suggest us to bring the person to church community for fair trial. This is not to pass a judgment or give any corporeal punishment. The aim of this step is to give the wrong person, one last chance to amend her/his ways. When all these initiatives have ended in failure, there is nothing more left for us to do but only to leave the person and keep ourselves away from her/him. This distancing is not untouchability. It is self-protection. We keep ourselves away from that person, so that we may not be influenced by that person. The first reading also affirms our duty to correct the wrong person in our vicinity. When we fail to correct the wrong person, we become liable for that person. In today’s culture, in the name of privacy and personal freedom, we distance ourselves from offering fraternal corrections. In doing so, we are neglecting our noble responsibility of being keepers of our neighbours. We are the guardians of our neighbour, because all of us are made in HIS image, we are all brothers and sisters. We have the duty to bring the strayed sheep back into the flock.

At the end of the Gospel, our Lord also asserts His presence amidst the people when they gather together in His name (Mt 18:20). People come together in the name of the Lord to make discernment. Whenever we intervene in the life of the neighbour constructively, we are helping her/him discern Lord’s will in her/his life, in the presence of the Lord. It is a collaboration with God. We must be happy to do this intervention and must do with utmost charity and as responsible disciples. Apart from correcting others, when we are given fraternal corrections, we need to be receptible. We should not harden our hearts. At times, we may reject the corrections given to us by others, if they themselves are not perfect. If we look for perfect person to help us correct, then we will not find anyone in this world. Fraternal help is not a job of a perfect. It is a charity of co-sinners as we journey together towards perfection. May we open ourselves to the will of God through the guidance given to us by the instrumentality of fellow human beings.