Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Think about the great milestones in a person’s life that we celebrate: first steps; going to school; riding a bicycle without training wheels; driving; going to college; buying your first house. What do all those have in common? They are all about independence. It’s not so amazing that a child walks while his or her parents are holding on; it’s noteworthy (as well as the beginning of a new, scary part of childhood) when the child can walk on his or her own. Yes, kids first learn how to drive with a parent in the car. But when do we really celebrate? When you can drive on your own. Going off to college is, yes, going to a large group of people in a new place (at least before COVID), but it’s striking out on one’s own away from parents. And buying one’s own house (or apartment) means, generally, that you’re not living with your parents anymore.
There’s nothing in se wrong with this, but look at how much we celebrate independence and individuality and doing things on one’s own. We celebrate when a person doesn’t need another person anymore, but can do something on his or her own. I can tell you that I really knew I was an adult when my parents didn’t have to pay for their own birthday dinners, but I paid the check.
And yet, our readings today all talk about interdependence, rather than independence. Let’s start with the Gospel. Jesus recognizes that there will be conflicts among His disciples. While He calls them to love one another, He also realizes that we do not always do that. And so, Jesus says that if our fellow disciple sins against us, we are to deal with it, not independently (by gossiping and holding on to grudges by ourselves), but interdependently, by telling our brother or sister that they have sinned against us, and need to repent. If the other doesn’t listen to us, we invite others who have knowledge of the fault to bolster our case. If the other doesn’t listen to them, we invite the church to get involved (notice that running to tell the priest is not the first step!). If the other won’t even listen to the church, then we can work on separating from them. The process of reconciliation is not one-sided in Jesus’ church, but always works with at least two.
In our second reading, St. Paul tells us that we are to love one another, because love fulfills the law. Love, by its very nature, is diffusive. It seeks an outlet. Self-love is not really what is meant by love. Yes, we have to care for ourselves, but if we truly love, then it always involves the way we treat each other. All of the commandments that we are bound to keep, are examples of ways that we should love each other. We cannot say that we are keeping the commandments if we cut everyone else out of our life or only do what is best for ourselves. That narcissism is part and parcel of our current culture, but it’s anathema for followers of Jesus.
And lastly, in our first reading, Ezekiel talks about the shepherds of Israel. He’s not talking about people who care for sheep, but people who care for people, the religious leaders. And God says through Ezekiel that shepherds have a responsibility to look out for others, to warn them about sin and death, so that they can avoid it. When the shepherds warn about sin and death, they also save themselves. If they don’t warn the sheep about sin and death, not only do the sheep die, but God promises to hold the shepherds responsible, too.
As followers of Jesus, we are interdependent. What we do affects each other. We are our brother’s keeper. We cannot simply say that we’re doing the right thing, so let the world go to hell in a hand basket. We have a responsibility towards each other, especially as fellow believers.
There’s a word that we have when a follower of Jesus doesn’t do publicly what he or she is supposed to do, and that word is scandal. We currently associate that work with priests who committed horrible crimes against the most innocent, and that is certainly a horrible scandal. But scandal applies to all, not just priests and not just about sexual abuse. When a Catholic says publicly that he or she supports abortion, euthanasia, artificial contraception, sex outside of marriage, marriage between two people of the same sex, or that sex has no connection to biology, that is a scandal, because Catholics are not to support such practices or ideas because they are contrary to God’s revelation. When a Catholic makes derogatory comments about a person simply because of that person’s race, gender, IQ, economic status, or religion, that is a scandal, because Catholics are called to show respect to every person as created in the image and likeness of God. As Catholics we can judge certain beliefs and actions to be wrong without judging another because God has revealed to us that those things are wrong. Sin, too, is always interdependent: it always effects more than simply the person committing the sin. We are both to work so that we are not a scandal to others, as well as work to correct others so that they are not a scandal to the world.
G.K. Chesterton, an early 20th century Catholic author said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” So often, when we come to a difficult part of our faith, we try to be independent, to make it on our own, or to choose to reject what the Church calls us to believe or how the Church calls us to live. We owe it to Jesus, and to each other, to be interdependent; to help each other live as followers of Jesus. Catholicism is not a religion of independence; it’s a religion of interdependence which calls us to care for and to challenge each other to be the saints that God call us to be in Baptism.
