Ez 33:7-9 / Roma 13:8-10 / Mt 18:15-20

Some years ago a Chicago housewife was extremely distraught at learning that her husband had been unfaithful to her — not once, but many times.  Indeed she was so distraught that she threw open the window of her third floor apartment and jumped. Fortunately, she was only slightly injured by the fall.  As fate would have it, she landed squarely on her husband who was killed by the impact!

Wherever two or three are gathered, someone’s going to get hurt! That’s because none of us is finished yet:

Sometimes we’re just oblivious and blind to the hurt we’re doing.

Sometimes fear seizes control over us and causes us to do all manner of dreadful things. (Incidentally, fear of some sort stands behind every sin.)

Sometimes it’s our ego that grabs center stage and leads us into things so hurtful and ugly that we won’t even look at them.

Jesus knows all this. He knows that as long as we are unfinished, hurts and sins will happen. It’s inevitable. But what’s not inevitable is that we let our hurts and sins just sit there, or let them continue to poison our lives. Jesus is very clear on this: If we really want inner peace and big family, we have to build them daily. And the only way to do that is by facing up to the hurts we’ve inflicted and the hurts we’ve suffered and then working to heal them.

Some of the wounds we’ve suffered at one another’s hands run very deep, either from a single, mortal blow or from a long-term experience akin to the Chinese water torture.  Healing those wounds is heavy work, both for the victim and for the perpetrator:

It requires us to take the initiative, even if we’re the victim.

It requires us to struggle to hear the truth and to speak it in love.

It requires us to ask forgiveness and to give it freely. And it requires us to forgive ourselves which isn’t always easy.

That kind of work is utterly beyond us. Only God’s power, God’s grace, can do it, and it’s there for the taking.

Jesus says in Sunday’s Gospel, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.” At this very moment, we are gathered in his name. And he is present to us as an understanding older brother, offering us the grace to heal those we have hurt and those who have hurt us, and the grace to be healed ourselves.

He’s offering us the inner peace and communion our hearts desire. Listen to what he’s saying and take the hand he’s offering. Let him put an end to whatever alienation or sin or estrangement may have a hold on your heart. And know at last the peace you long for!