September 8 23d Sunday in Ordinary time. Mt. 18/15-20.

Background

The very words in today’s Gospel illustrate the point made in last week’s Background paragraph. The instruction was meant for the early Church which was split my many internal conflicts. There was not, as one recent author said, a single Church but many churches which were part of a movement. Within congregations and among congregations there was constant controversy (so nothing much has changed). The author is trying to use the instructions of Jesus about love as a kind of rule of thumb for settling controversies and conflicts. It is strange, is it not, the Jesus’s message of love was forgotten so soon after his own time and that Cardinal Bernardin’s attempt to persuade warring factions to fight one another is merely a continuation of what St. Matthew is trying to do in the Gospel.

Story

Once upon a time there was a poker club, four men that gathered together on the first Tuesday of each month to play penny ante. Not much money every changed hands and all had a good time. One man brought the cards, another brought the chips, a third brought the beer, and a fourth brought popcorn. The wife of whoever was the host made sandwiches and then, with a sigh of relief joined the other three wives at a movie. One night a wife tried to be little fancy and made hamburgers. The next time the wife made pasta, the time after that there was Cesar Salad, the fourth time there were steaks. I must not accuse the wives of starting the competition because they were doing only what their husbands asked. Then the man whose turn it was to bring the beer brought Guiness stout and the beer competition began. Some suggested that they ought to play for a dime a point. Pretty soon the poker club was split by rivalry and competition. Everyone tried to outdo everyone else. There was a fight at almost every session. The four men began to dislike and then hate one another. The poker club collapsed. None of the men ever played poker again.