The Ministry of Communion

Gospel: Matthew 18: 15-20

Human beings are by nature social creatures.  We depend on one another for our survival and our flourishing.  If such is the case in the natural realm, so also is it true in the realm of our spiritual lives.  The very fact that God is a Trinity of persons existing in mutual love suggests the fact that we are called to live in communities of support for one another in our spiritual journey through life.  This is the entire point of today's Gospel passage.

It is an all too common human urge to summarily expel others from our midst, to demonize individuals and entire groups of people.  The entire ministry of Jesus, however, worked in the opposite direction of that urge.  His was a ministry of encounter with others without exception or exclusion, reaching beyond all known categories of human exclusions and discriminations.  The ultimate symbol of that ministry is the table where encounter is made, differences are resolved, and communion takes place.

The authentic religious impulse is the one that moves us to encounter with others, to help resolve differences among people, and to facilitate communion - communion among people, communion between humanity and God.  It is a false religion that preaches exclusion, deportation, excommunication, execution, and genocide.  Today is a day for us to recommit to the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of peacemaking, reconciliation, and communion.