23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (2026) – Homily
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Ezekiel 33:7-9
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (8)
Romans 13:8-10
Matthew 18:15-20
September 6, 2026
Silence is not the answer.
Much of the world tells us to be silent about our faith. They claim that faith is a private matter not to be talked about in public.
I see silence not as the answer to our problems. I see silence as part of the problem. The world is going downhill. This is, in part, because we have been silent about our faith too long.
Our Lord wants us to speak up. He says so in our first reading. One could read the first reading as addressed only to Ezekiel as a prophet of the Lord. However, we must remember that through our Baptism, we are all called to be priest, prophet, and king. We are not all called to be a prophet in the same way as Ezekiel. We are all called to proclaim the gospel.
Jesus gives a method for addressing individual sin. When someone has sinned against us, Jesus calls us to first speak individually to the person. We need to do so with hope and love. With hope, we begin the conversation with a desire to help the person realize their sin. Maybe they did not intend it or recognize it as a sin.
If they do not listen to us individually, Jesus says to take one or two others with you to establish the facts. We must consider our motives here. The goal should not be to prove ourselves right. Our goal should be to help the person recognize their sin and to lead them to repent and conversion to the Lord.
Jesus then says that, if the person has still not listened, we are to take them to the Church. The Church is an authority on what sin is and what it means to give our lives to the Lord.
If the person does not listen to the Church, Jesus says to treat them as we “would a Gentile or a tax collector.” We are to treat them with love as our neighbor while not allowing ourselves to be drawn into their sin (see the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37).
Our Lord wants us to speak against sin. Each in our own way, we are appointed watchman. This is not to be a burden but a joy in pointing others to Christ.
Does this mean we should publicly speak against every sin we see? Here I think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:1-5 calling us to mindful of our own sins when dealing with the sins of others. Jesus does not tell us to be silent about their sins. We need to address our own sins as well as those of others.
When should we say something? The Lord says, “when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.” If we give our hearts and our voices to the Lord, He will tell us when to speak and He will guide us in the words to say.
We should take this seriously for the Lord tells us to speak out “to dissuade the wicked” from evil and that if we do not, we will be held responsible for their sins (along with them).
Are we are called to force our faith on them? No. If we speak what the Lord asks of us and the person/people do not change, our Lords says their sin is theirs alone.
In our responsorial verse, we say together, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Who would harden their hearts against the Lord’s voice? Sinners. When we freely choose to act contrary to what our Lord teaches, we harden our hearts from hearing what the Lord is saying.
When we sin, we need to bring ourselves to the Lord, confessing our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, thankful for the gift of this Sacrament made possible through Jesus’ death on the Cross. It is when we “bow down in worship” and kneel before the Lord in our hearts that we allow the Lord to change us. When we come to Mass to worship, we bow and kneel externally at the appropriate times. Yet bowing and kneeling before the Lord in our hearts is not something just for Sunday worship. It is something we need to do all the time.
We do this in love, love for the Lord and for our neighbor. In his Passion and Crucifixion, Jesus has paid the price for our sins. This is a debt we could never repay. What we can do is love for “love is the fulfillment of the law.”
The world calls us to toleration but their definition of toleration often means accepting the behavior as okay. The Lord calls us to love. True love alerts people of their sin (see my article “Tolerance, Hate Speech, and Dialogue”).
Peace,
Fr. Jeff