09/07/2026
Deacon James Garza's Homily
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, the word of God calls us to look closely at our relationships within the community of faith. It challenges us to move away from a casual, individualized faith, and step into the sacred, sometimes uncomfortable, duty
of mutual accountability, and love.
In the first reading, God appoints the prophet Ezekiel as a watchman for the house of Israel. A watchman‘s job is to stand on the city wall, spot danger, and sound the alarm. God tells Ezekiel that if he sees a wicked person heading toward death and remains silent, God will hold Ezekiel responsible for that persons blood.
This is a sobering reminder: we bear genuine responsibility for one another’s spiritual well-being.
How do we avoid turning this duty into self righteous judgment, or legalism? The answer lies in the second reading. Saint Paul tells the Roman’s, “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.” Love is the filter for everything we do. When we look at our neighbor, our primary motivation must never be anger or a
desire to feel morally superior; it must be the debt of love we owe them. Love works no evil to a neighbor; rather, love desires the neighbors eternal salvation. This brings us directly to the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus provides a practical, humble Blueprint for
practicing this love when someone sins:
* Go to them, privately to protect their dignity and win them back.
* Take one or two others along if they do not listen, ensuring, fairness, prayerful, counsel, and objectivity.
* Tell it to the church if the division remains unresolved.
Then, Jesus says something that is easily misunderstood. If the offender refuses to listen, even to the church, Jesus says to “treat them, as you would a gentile or a tax collector.”
To a first century hearer, this sounded like outright, rejection and abandonment. But we must look at how Jesus himself treated gentiles and tax collectors. Jesus consistently reached out to them, ate at their tables, and invited them to conversion. Matthew himself was a tax collector before Christ called him to be an apostle.
Therefore, treating someone as an outsider, is not an act of spite or permanent rejection, it is a shift in pastoral approach. What do we mean by a pastoral approach? A pastoral approach is modeled after the good shepherd. It values people over cold procedures,
and it focuses entirely on healing, conversion and restoration. It recognizes that different spiritual conditions require different methods of care. When someone stubbornly rejects the guidance of the body of Christ, a pastoral approach recognizes that the
relationship has changed. We cannot hold someone accountable to Christian standards if they have chosen to walk away from them.
Instead of forcing rules upon them, our pastoral approach shifts: we love and evangelize them anew. They become the lost sheep who needs the basic, gentle proclamation of the gospel shared with them all over again. The goal is never to punish them, but to win them back.
Immediately, following this instruction, Jesus proclaims: “whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” In Jewish rabbinic language, binding and loosening, referred to authoritative teaching and the decision to discipline or reconcile an individual within the
assembly.
Jesus confers this authority upon the church to confirm that heaven ratifies the Church’s pursuit of truth and reconciliation.
When the church must bind—holding someone accountable for unrepentant sin—it is done with the hope that medicinal discipline will awaken their conscience. When the church “looses”— extending the gift of forgiveness and sacramental absolution—
heaven rejoices. God entrusts the ministry of reconciliation to the church, demonstrating how seriously he takes communion and peace among His children.
Jesus seals this teaching with a powerful promise:
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Christ is actively present not just during quiet moments of adoration, but right in the midst of our shared efforts to forgive, correct, and rebuild fellowship. Yet this entire process fails if our hearts remain closed. Our responsorial Psalm reminds us of the interior posture we must keep: “if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
The central truth of today’s liturgy is that we are called to be our brothers keeper. Our culture often encourages detached indifference, advising us to mind our own business, and to look away while people stumble. But true Christian charity refuses to
remain silent when a loved one is destroying their life, their family, or their soul. Silence in the face of grave harm is apathy, not love.
Living this out, requires practicing authentic fraternal correction, in other words, to look away, while a brother or sister destroys their spiritual life is actually a failure to love them.
Because we are called to bring Christ’s freeing mercy into the world, we must set aside, gossip, passive—aggression, and public condemnation, choosing instead to approach one another with gentleness, patience, and truth of a truly pastoral heart.
To put this gospel into practice this week, take on the challenge to address an unresolved grievance, directly, and privately rather than venting to third parties.
Follow these four steps:
* Identify the relationship: bring to mind a family member, colleague, or friend, whose actions have caused hurt, or who is visibly walking down a harmful path.
* Refuse gossip: commit to not speaking about the grievance to others, whether in conversation, through text messages, or on social media.
* Take the private step: approach the person one-on-one. Speak with humility, framing your concern with care, maybe saying “because I value our friendship and care about you, I want to talk through what happened between us.”
* But Begin with prayer: before speaking, pray for the grace of a humble tongue and a softened heart, asking God to lead both of you toward mutual understanding and peace.
Let us ask the Lord for the courage of the watchmen, the humility to receive correction ourselves, and the charity that fulfills the whole law.
Because—today you heard Jesus’ words—so harden not your hearts.
