Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Sin Must Never Be Ignored

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if we read the Gospel of Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 to 20, at first glance, it seems that Jesus is being authoritarian. He is explaining to his Apostles, the future leaders of the Church, how they should deal with members of the Church who fall into sin and cause scandal to the family of believers.

Here Jesus is referring especially to the kind of sin that affects the whole community directly. He instructs his Apostles not to ignore it, but to do something about it. Maybe that's why it sounds so authoritarian to us - we are used to thinking that tolerance, even tolerance of sin, is the highest value. But that's not Jesus' perspective.

He wants his Church to care about tolerance, yes, but he wants it to care even more about truth. Sin is real, and it is destructive, both for the person sinning and for the whole community. Sin is like a destructive fire that starts in one person's soul. If it isn't put out quickly with Christ's mercy, it can destroy that person and spread like a spiritual forest fire through a whole community.

And that's why Jesus instructs his Apostles to do everything possible to bring people back when they stray. First, they should approach them one-on-one and patiently encourage them to come back to Christ.

If that doesn't work, they should patiently involve some objective parties in the discussion. And only if the scandal continues should there be a public denunciation, to make it clear to everyone that the sinful, scandalous behaviour is contrary to God's loving plan of salvation - to isolate the fire.

This Gospel passage comes right after Christ's parable of the good shepherd who leaves his 99 sheep to seek out the one who has strayed. Christ is insisting here that all his followers, and especially his ordained ministers, have the same selfless and determined attitude.

The Blinding Effect of Relativism

In past periods of history, the reality of sin was something everyone was familiar with. But in our day and age, this basic truth has been eclipsed by a devotion to the false god of relativism.

Relativism says that there is no objective right and wrong equally valid for everyone. Instead, relativism says, the only thing that matters is what each individual feel is right and wrong for him. In other words, morality is relative to each person. This sounds nice, but it is both illogical and impractical.

It is illogical because it contradicts itself. The statement "right and wrong is not universal, but personal" is a universal statement. It is like saying, "It is objectively true that there is no objective truth." That makes no logical sense.

But relativism is also impractical - no one lives by it, because they can't. Imagine a high school teacher who flunked all his blond-haired students, just because they had blond hair, and in his mind that was a sign that they didn't deserve to pass. No one would accept that. It is clearly unfair treatment. But a true relativist would have to accept it.

That same illogical logic is at the root of what our society tries to tell us about sins like pre-marital sex, homosexual unions, abortion, and cloning. In order to have a reason to justify what many people have strong, personal desires to do, they try to say that there are no universal moral standards - in other words, that there is no such thing as sin.

But that's like saying there is no such thing as poison - it's a psychological comfort, but it's dangerously wrong. Jesus is reminding us today that sin is destructive and real, and that he is the antidote.

Staying Close to the Good Shepherd through Confession

St Paul tells us in today's Second Reading that we can sum up all our moral obligations in one phrase: love your neighbour as yourself. Then he goes on to say that love "does no evil" to others.

By ignoring the reality of sin, we can do great evil, both to ourselves and to others. By acknowledging and rejecting sin, we do great good. That doesn't mean we are supposed to go around pointing fingers at people, like the Pharisees did.

If we want to help lost sheep come back to the Good Shepherd, the first thing we must all do is stay close to the Shepherd ourselves. If we get lost, how can we help save others?

And Jesus makes it so easy for us to stay close to him: not by isolating us from temptation, not by taking away all our selfish and sinful tendencies, not by taking away our need for self-discipline and responsibility. No, he doesn't spoil us - he loves us too much to do that.

Instead, he gives us unlimited free access to his own spiritual car wash: the sacrament of confession. If we want to be good shepherds to those around us, if we really want to learn how to love our neighbours, we must first let ourselves be loved by Christ. We must let him teach, heal, and forgive our selfishness, sinfulness, and weakness, so that we can learn to do the same for others.

A good soldier needs to be fed - as we are each week through Holy Communion. But good soldiers also need to have their wounds healed so that they can keep on fighting. That's what happens in confession - if we let it.