Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle A
First Reading: Ez 33:7-9
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Rom 13:8-10
Gospel: Mt 18:15-20

Jesus was a person of promise. So much of what He said and did seemed to speak of freedom and new creation. Freedom is at the heart of our response to God. It is a free response to a lover who comes into our lives and says, "I want to love you, and I want you to love me back."

But there are always moments when the dream fades and hopes are dimmed. Evil, suffering and death, crisis and scandal continue to burst the dreams of believers, and many are tempted to turn their backs and walk away.

In the year that has passed since last September 11th, our trust in many of society's most cherished institutions has been shaken, badly shaken, and deservedly so. We have come to see that peace and security are fragile commodities. We now see how vulnerable we are, and we have learned to take nothing for granted. On September 11, 2001 we heard that "the world will never be the same; that our lives have been changed forever." And while this is true for many people in very real and personal ways, looking back over the last 12 months it almost seems that nothing has really changed - that mankind's quest for power has reared its ugly head even more unabashedly than before.

We have witnessed power at its worst:

The Power of Fear - brought about by terrorism

The Power of Greed - which destroys corporations and the financial security of thousands

The Power of Domination - seen in the escalating war and self-destruction in the Middle East

The Power of Unaccountable Control - as evidenced by the on-going crisis of scandal in our church.

The misuse of power is the antithesis of freedom and its results can cause the destruction of creation.

One of the most difficult facets of Christianity is that it continually invites us to re-imagine how the whole process works.

There can be no compromise when it comes to the message of Christ. If we buy into it only half-heartedly, we will ultimately lose it. If we pick and choose what parts of the Gospel we will subscribe to, we end up betraying the entire message. If we are faithful only when it is easy to be, we run the risk of denying Him under pressure. With Jesus, it's all or nothing - His invitation to follow Him is one that requires both courage and generosity.

At the heart of the Gospel message, we have a reminder of how we accomplish this and how we are to love. The message we find in Scripture keeps going back to the fact that we can't do it on our own. Paul reminds us: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law." We have to be in a disposition where we are radically open to a Spirit of love that lives inside each of us.

Like every generation of Christians before us, we are expected to translate the Easter mystery into the kind of faith, hope and love we need to refashion our world. But first we have to believe that this New Creation is possible. I think that in some sense the problems that afflict us and our world have grown so monstrous and massive as to render us impotent. We are not as confident in our leadership as we once were. We are no longer sure that we are powerful enough in our faith to overcome the threats that hang over us...from deadly disease, from threat of nuclear warfare, from international terrorism, from global poverty, famine and injustice. We are not sure that we are strong enough in our love of God to turn our society around...to continually re-create our world.

But Jesus assures us otherwise - He teaches stewardship and accountability at every turn. He urges us to be concerned for the needs of others. His challenge is that we use God's gifts wisely and well. And He gives us the Power to do all of this. At the heart of our faith is a spirit leading us to acknowledge that it is God's love and goodness that provides so abundantly for all of our needs. And at the center of our love for God is a desire to share this gift with our brothers and sisters.

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