Jesus said to his disciples, "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 tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed on heaven. Again, (amen), I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where there are two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
The Word in other words
The reality of conflict is an inevitable circumstance of human existence caught between the intricacies of human diversity. Nevertheless, Jesus provides a practical solution to glitches that may arise from this seemingly unavoidable fact of life. In other words, He does not detach this challenge from a true disciple's journey towards holiness and Christian maturity.
Once Thomas Edison was approached by one of his assistants complaining, "We have learned nothing from our experiments; until now we have not been able to single out an element that would suit our bulb!" Edison confidently replied, " Oh, not so, for we have learned that thousands of these elements do not fit to make a suitable light bulb." And so they continued experimenting until they succeeded in finding the right element for their groundbreaking discovery.
In a similar manner Jesus reminds us never to give up on each other, and that there are thousands of good and right ways to settle our differences. Our community also plays a part in bridging over these difference, regardless of the fact that no single person is totally the same as the other. We should therefore not be a hindrance to one another's striving after the true kinship in the Kingdom of God. After all, we are all children, thus brothers and sisters, bound by the greatest love of all, the one offered on the cross.
- Fr. Sedfrey Nebres, SVD (Holland)
