Gospel: Matthew
18:15-20
Jesus
said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his
fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your
brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that
every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he
refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the
Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say
to you, whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on
earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by
my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them.”
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Reflection:
A domineering
husband would always shout at his wife whenever she commits mistake. Eventually
the wife had enough of his domineering behavior so she decided to leave him for
good and live her life in peace.
It’s
always very tempting to show off our authority and power in the sphere of
environment that we are in. Yet the more that we become authoritarian the more
that we alienate ourselves from the people that we love. The more that we
become domineering that more that we hasten our downfall.
Whenever
there is conflict in our sphere of environment. The devil would always tell us
to show-off our domineering behavior through the exercise of our
authority. But this kind of action will
never heal conflict it will even exacerbate conflict.
Jesus has
an advice for all of us on how to deal with those whom we have issues to
settle. The advice of Jesus is to always
use the way of diplomacy and never the way of arrogance. To sit-down and talk
as civilized and educated people, to stretch our patience to the limit and not
to immediately get angry.
How do
you behave when there are issues in your sphere of environment, say for example
in your family? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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