Friday and Saturday, 28th Week of Ordinary Time

Matthew 18:10-35
The Daily Office

I’m combining the readings from Friday and Saturday in today’s meditation.  As you may have guessed from my longer post yesterday, this is one of those really important parts of Holy Scripture.  It’s the most in-depth guidance that we have from our Lord and Savior on how to live together in the Church.  And while I can’t really do it justice in a couple of meditations, I need to be a little more comprehensive.

First, let’s focus on verse 17: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”  Ok, we know that faithful Jews were not supposed to deal with Gentiles and tax collectors.  So, after we’ve reasoned with someone, and told them clearly that what they’re doing is wrong, and they persist, then we can cut them off, right? 

But how did Jesus deal with Gentiles and tax collectors?  He stayed in dialogue with Gentiles, even allowing them to change his mind.  And he ate with the tax collectors because, as he said, it is the sick who need a doctor.  In other words, Jesus isn’t saying that the Church should cut off an unrepentant sinner from fellowship.  You don’t give in to their sin, their dysfunction.  But neither do you stop talking to them.  They need a doctor, and as Jesus’s hands and arms in this world, that would be you.

Now look at the parable of the two debtors.  In those times, a “talent” was equivalent to 20 years’ wages.  So here comes a debtor who owes millions of dollars.  That much debt wasn’t acquired honestly, but is probably the result and misuse and theft.  And understand how empty is the promise to “pay you everything.”  And out of pity for the inner sickness and compulsion that led to such a debt, and for those who must suffer with this debtor, he is forgiven, given a new lease on life.

So what’s a hundred denarii, or 100 days of wages?  Everything to this forgiven debtor for whom the world is a violent place of con men and suckers, predators and prey.  Is that how you see the world?  Or can you trust that there are safe spaces in this good and dangerous world?  Spaces where people live with each others’, and their own failings?  Spaces where the Spirit of mercy opens closed hearts?  That is what Jesus wants his Church to be: a safe space where all can find mercy, and be transformed. 

Look at yourself honestly, through the eyes of Jesus, and you will certainly see sin, but will just as certainly see mercy.  Accept the mercy, and the growth.  Don’t be afraid to feel the stretch.