23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
For some time, I was in charge of reading the prayer requests we receive over the Internet. Commonly, a person will ask the monks to ‘agree’ with him in prayer. The idea, of course, is that our prayers have a better chance of being answered if two persons agree on them.

At the same time, I think that we can all agree that this needs some interpretation. After all, I am sure that millions of people are in agreement that we would like God to intervene in the lives of those devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I’m sure that all of us have had the experience of praying hard with family and friends for the recovery of a loved one who went on to die.
A common refuge from this dilemma is simply to say that our agreement wasn’t strong enough, that we lacked faith even the size of a mustard seed. For even this mite of faith can move mountains, as Our Lord has taught.

This word translated as ‘agree’ is an interesting one in Greek: symphonēsosin. We must be in ‘symphony’ with one another, literally speaking with one voice. Plato and Aristotle used this word in their teachings on music. In Plato, all of creation performs a kind of symphony, with a glorious music being generated by the harmonious motions of the planets.

What is of interest to me in this model is that the planets and the stars, like the instruments in an orchestra, ‘symphonize’ not by having everyone play the same thing. In fact, a symphony is accomplished by many persons each playing his own part in service of the whole.
This is worth remembering when we interpret the first reading as well as the first part of the gospel. We have a duty to correct our fellow Christians when their actions are producing discord. I need not dwell on the fact; there is plenty of correction to go around these days. At times, I fear that the American Church is overrun by vigilantes. But the question that we should ask ourselves before we assume the duty to correct is this: is the discord produced by my brother’s action? Or is the discord in fact inside me because I want my brother to play exactly the same tune as I am?

Is the discord in my brother? Or is it in me? If we examine our feelings objectively, I suspect that often enough, the discord is simply my own anger or self-righteousness, not the supposed wrong of the other.

Now I know that as I speak, there are those of us here that are already saying, "He doesn’t mean me. After all my complaint is legitimate, as opposed to the people he’s talking about."
The problem with being too quick to correct, complain, or even at times exhort is that it can alienate a brother whose ways are different from mine. We can make the problem worse so that my brother now perceives that I have sinned and he needs to correct me. And so we get into a showdown: who will back down first?

Then, following the teaching of the Lord, as we believe that we are doing, we find various arguments that are on our side and start firing away. When our brother remains stubborn, we go to the priest or to the bishop. When the priest or bishop will not listen, we label him as a bad priest or bishop and say that we need not obey him any more: we will just obey Rome or just mourn the demise of the Church.

What the Lord leaves unsaid is the possibility that if we find truly impartial witnesses, they might not agree with our assessment of the situation.

All of us have gripes and see things that strike us as wrong. All of us, indeed, live amidst countless wrongs that happen every day. In what way is it our duty to be watchmen for the Church? All of us share in the prophetic office of Jesus Christ by virtue of our baptisms. But how many of us are ready to really take up the mantle? How many of us are ready first to let the Word of God pierce between our own bone and sinew, take us apart, discipline us and refashion us anew? If we are not willing to allow God to work us over a bit, we will be like a violin that has not been played in twenty years. God might play the tune on us, but it will not appeal to anyone.
Sometimes, it is not our point of view that causes discord, but the fact that we are unable to present it to others in a compelling way. Too often, our own lives conflict with the message God has given us. Too often, we are so certain of our cause that we do not take the time to phrase it in a way that is understandable to others. To extend the musical metaphor, we give the trombone a flute part to play and then get angry that it sounds too heavy. We might even fail to give others the benefit of the doubt for their point of view. And if that person is a baptized Christian, we ignore their opinion at our own peril, for they share with us the office of the prophet.

We can always trot out our supporters, but then again, surely thieves and murderers can find people who agree with them. Does this mean that God is obliged to listen? Or must our agreement before the God who searches the heart really reach a completely new level? Is that faith that moves mountains a feeling of comfort and trust that we generate in ourselves, or is it a profound respect for our common baptism and the sometimes scandalous choices of God? For my part, I am thankful to God that He is more merciful with me than I am with others.

So when is it my responsibility to correct fraternally? I think that we can ask a few questions: do I possess authority over the person? If yes, then can I do it with love and not out of anger or self-righteousness? If the person is not under my authority, then we really must restrain ourselves unless it is a question of a sin directly against our person. And again, I don’t mean that someone simply did something that I disagree with. Did the person lie to me, steal from me or otherwise injure me? And again, can I offer the correction in love and respect, not out of anger or resentment? Would I really be willing to turn the case over to an impartial judge? Am I willing to abide by an impartial judgement and not nurse a grudge if it doesn’t go my way? Do I possess that kind of faith in God’s supremacy over events?

If I can come to this point, of truly fulfilling the law in loving my neighbor as God and subjecting myself to the Church for the love of Jesus Christ, then I might begin to glimpse what it might mean to agree with my fellow Christians. I might be freed from my own narrow perceptions and open to the counter-melodies emanating from the lives of those around me. Perhaps I will even start to listen to the symphony of God’s truth in a way that allows me to fit my part in more harmoniously than before.

Every orchestral player knows that he will ruin the piece by only paying attention to his own part. But he also needs the conductor to help him hear the whole. Let us turn our lives over to the master artist Jesus Christ and together with our brothers and sisters in the Church be transformed into something humble and beautiful, an agreeable song of praise soaring up to the throne of God, to whom be power and dominion forever and ever. Amen.