The Fraternal Correction (Sunday Gospel’s Commentary)
by Anne-Catherine AVRIL, nds
This 23d Sunday of ordinary time invites us to reflect on the importance of correcting each other and on praying together.
In Ez 33,7-9: If I say to the wicked: O wicked ones, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity but their blood I will require at your hand. And in Mt 18,15-17: If another member of the Church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone….
Those two passages are based on Lev 19 17 :You shall correct your neighbour, or you will incur guilt yourself. The Jewish commentary of this verse ( in the Midrash Sifra) is using the image of the speck and the log in a different way than the one we know in Mt 7,4-5. This is what it says (I allow myself to paraphrase it): You must correct your brother or sister, but sometimes they do not receive your correction . You tell them gently: “take the speck out of your eye”, and they answer abruptly: “Look first at yourself and take out the log which is in your own eye.” And the same tradition gives the example of Rabbi Aqiba a holy rabbi who died as a martyr because of his faith under Hadrian’s persecution in the 2d century c.e. He was very humble and it is said that the more he was corrected the more he was showing love.Then the Gospel talks about praying together and ends saying: “When two or three are gathered in my Name, I am there among them”.
And In the Sayings of the Fathers (from the Mishna) we read: “When ten or three or two or even one are sitting together and occupy themselves with the Tora, the Presence of God rests upon them.” Let us listen carefully to both traditions and how they echo each other: Jesus says: “When two or three are gathered in my Name”. And the Mishna: “When ten or three are gathered occupying themselves with the Tora”….We understand then that Jesus is the living Torah among us, the incarnate word of God, who does not abolish the Jewish Torah but fulfills it in his life up to the end; “ I am there among them”, and the Mishna says: “the presence of God rests upon them”. Jesus is the human presence of God among us.
Now let us look at the second reading of this Sunday : Ro 13,8-10). In its center is quoted Lev 19,18: You will love your neighbour like yourself, verse which comes just after you shall correct your neighbour (v.17), meaning that to correct the neighbour must be done out of love. And Paul concludes: love is the fulfilment of the law One of the messages of those readings could be: Have the courage to correct your neighbour, but be sure that it is out of love, and receive the correction as a proof of love from your brother or sister and as an invitation to love him or her still more. Then we will fulfil the Law, the Tora of the Lord and His presence will rest upon us.
