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:
The story is told about a domineering husband who 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 behavior will never heal conflict it will
even exacerbate conflict.
In our gospel, Jesus has an advice for all of us on how to deal with
those whom we have issues to settle with. 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 we behave when there are issues in our sphere of environment, say
for example inside the family? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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