Nineteenth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

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.

Just as we should always seek the forgiveness of God and those people whom we sin against, so too we should give others every chance to be forgiven. Jesus gives us the step-by-step process of forgiveness. First and foremost, when someone sins against us we should seek to heal our relationship in private. We shouldn’t make the harm they did us public. Instead we should try to work things out one-on-one in secret so that no public harm is done. If that doesn’t work then we should seek the help of family, friends, or trusted mediators who might be able to help us heal our division. If things still go poorly, then we should turn to the Church for guidance as to how to handle healing our relationship. If even that fails, and we can honestly say we have tried to heal the wounds within our relationship, then we should be willing to walk away. Perhaps in time the person who harmed us will come around and seek forgiveness. However, what we should not do is seek retribution or become upset with the person who has sinned against us. These actions do nothing but waste our energy and cause us to sin. Rather, we should be patient and humble and loving in our dealings with the person who harmed us and treat them how we would like to be treated. Perhaps one day they will repay us in kind and realize the errors of their ways.

Do we seek forgiveness from God and His children? Do we forgive when someone asks for our forgiveness? Are we patient with those who sin against us and never spiteful against them?

O Lord, help us win over our brothers and sisters in God.

Amen.