23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

1st Reading                   Ezekiel 33: 7-9

Psalm                               95: 1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (R. 8). 

R:// "O that today you would listen to his voice, harden not your hearts"

2nd Reading                 Romans 13: 8-10

Gospel                            Matthew 18: 15-20

GO AND FIND

Friends, Peace and Goodness! Today is the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) and the very first Sunday of September, the month traditionally dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. We have a justifiable reason to regard September as a month of Mary, at least on a minor level. Let us closely look at the readings today. 

The first reading is from Ezekiel 33:7-9. Any reader of Ezekiel will be very quick in identifying that the passage is closely the same as Ezekiel 3:17-21. What we read today is repetition and it is not new. The first time the oracle was uttered was before the fall of Jerusalem. The one we read today is after the fall of the city, once the worst has happened. Let us pay attention to a few interesting markers in the passage. 

The first point of interest is the appointment of Ezekiel. Thus, "You, Son of Man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel" (Ezek. 33: 7a). In fact, read side-by-side its earlier occurrence in Ezekiel 3: 17-21, the prophet is appointed a watchman, otherwise a sentinel in some translations. The word translated as "Watchman" or "Sentinel" is ẒŌPHEH (צֹפֶה), from the root TSAFAH, to look out or to keep vigil. I suggest that we see that word within the context of a military activity. The ẒŌPHEH is the person who is stands on the wall of a city to scan the horizon for an advancing army and sound the ram's horn the moment danger appeared. In fact, every walled city of the Ancient Near East depended on such men. A watchman who fell asleep or who saw the enemy and said nothing left the whole population exposed, and such people are punished because the city's survival rested on his vigilance alone. This is the same office God grants Ezekiel. Before the city was destroyed, he received that office. After the city's fall, that office becomes more urgent. 

The same figure recurs in Isaiah. The author pictures the Lord setting watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem who are never to fall silent, day or night, until the city's restoration is secured. Jeremiah also complains that the Lord set watchmen over the people to heed the sound of the trumpet, and the people refused to listen. Ezekiel understands his duty as a watchman. He is to indicate to the city impending danger. That indication and warning will come from the Lord's own mouth.

The second thing we should look at is the punishment for not speaking of the impending danger. Here is where we have a legal implication. If the watchman fails to speak and the wicked man dies in his sin, the Lord says, "I will hold you responsible for their blood" (v. 8). This is courtroom language. Remember that in Genesis, after the flood, God tells Noah that for every man's blood he will demand a reckoning at the hand of his brother. In fact, that expression recurs almost verbatim in 2 Samuel, when David condemns the assassins of Ishbosheth by asking whether he should not require their victim's blood at their hand. The audience of Ezekiel, who knew that vocabulary from the Torah and from their own history, would have understood at once that the prophet was being addressed as a party legally liable for another man's death. The implication being that we are responsible for the safety and well-being of others and that cannot be underestimated. 

Each soul in a community is answerable and guilty when they refuse to alert the community members about a wrong. Each member is a watchman. 

Let us stop at a third detail and look at the character and image of the one the watchman is sent to. The man Ezekiel is sent to warn is called, in the plain Hebrew of the text, RĀSHĀ‘ (רָשָׁע), the wicked one. Ezekiel, the appointed watchman, is to warn him. Two times the word WARN appears in the reading. The word WARN is HIZHĪR (הִזְהִיר), from the root ZĀHAR. The same root, in a different form, gives the Hebrew word for radiance and Daniel (12:3) vision makes use of that word. The word is ZŌHAR. Daniel uses it in his apocalyptic vision when the author says that the wise who turn many to righteousness will shine like the brightness of the heavens. What is happening here is that there is a link between warning and illumination. To warn a man is to hold a light toward him so that he can see the danger before he walks into it. 

The Gospel passage is Matthew 18:15-20. This is a very familiar passage about the levels of fraternal correction. Weeks ago, during a weekday Mass, we came across this passage (Wednesday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time, Year A). Here, on the 23rd Sunday in OrdinaryTime (Year A), barely 3 weeks, we have the text presented to us once again. There are clearly presented in the Gospel about correction. What do we make of the three levels today? Let us not forget that the passage is occurring immediately after the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18: 12-14).

The first level is quite interesting. The problem is that a brother sins against you. The first thing to do is to go and TELL him. The Greek verb there for TELL HIM HIS FAULT is ELENXON, from ELENCHŌ. This word means to expose or to convict by producing evidence a person cannot honestly deny. John uses this exact verb for the Holy Spirit in John 16:8, who will "convict" (ELENCHŌ) the world concerning sin. What is happening is that the higher level of a legal proceeding is being brought into a private conversation. In this private encounter, there is a force of testimony. 

The second level is "Take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses." This is a direct citation of Deuteronomy 18:15, the rule for how any charge is to be validated in Israel's courts, thus, "a single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained". Jesus is telling his disciples that when they gather to address a brother's sin, they are making themselves into a covenant court bound by the same rules of evidence that governed Israel's legal life for a long time. The Matthean community is asked to hold itself to the same standard of fairness the Law demanded of judges at the city gate. 

The third level is that "If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." I suggest we read this in relation to the whole Matthean Gospel. Matthew's Gospel has already told us, only nine chapters earlier, exactly what Jesus does with tax collectors. He calls one of them, Matthew himself, to be his own disciple (Matthew 9:9). He goes to his house and eats at his table, to the scandal of the Pharisees, who ask, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (Matthew 9:10–11). Today's passage is placed immediately after the parable of the lost sheep, where the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes after the one that wandered off, "not wanting any of these little ones to be lost" (18:12–14). To be treated "as a Gentile and a tax collector," in Matthew's own Gospel, would mean to become, once again, someone to be sought, someone outside the fold whom the shepherd is bound by his own character to go and find.

Pax et Bonum