Wednesday 12 August 2026
St Jane Frances de Chantal
Ezekiel 9:1-7; 10:18-22. The glory of the Lord is higher than the skies – Ps 112(113):1-6. Matthew 18:15-20.
Practical care
Today’s Gospel reveals Jesus at his most practical and caring all at once. His proposed method for dealing with a brother or sister who sins begins with respecting the person’s privacy. He does not advocate scandal; and, in keeping with the way he elsewhere dealt with the woman famously caught in adultery, he does everything he can to protect the person. He recommends, first, confronting the sinful brother or sister in private, ‘just between the two of you’. If that fails, he advocates, take along a few more as witnesses; a little like what some moderns call ‘an intervention’. Only then, if that fails, should the person’s sin become public knowledge, and even then it remains a church matter; the hope is, the person will listen to the church. But what does the final action mean, ‘treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector’? Pagans and tax collectors got kindness from Jesus too . . .
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