2026-09-06 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
2026-09-06 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
O Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation!Heavenly Father, we come before Your presence with thanksgiving and lift up our hearts to You in song. For You are a great God, a King above all kings.
September 1st marked the start of the Season of Creation (September 1 – October 4), an ecumenical season inviting Christians around the world to pray and care for God's creation, rooted in Pope Francis's Laudato Si'.
In Your hands are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the mountains are Yours also. The sea is Yours, for You made it, and Your hands formed the dry land.
We thank You, Lord, for the beauty of Your creation, for the life You have given us, and for sustaining us each day by Your providence.
Come O faithful, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
For You are our God, and we are the people of Your pasture, the sheep of Your hand. Thank You for guiding us, protecting us, and feeding us with Your Word and Sacraments.
O Lord, today, as we hear Your voice, harden not our hearts. Keep us from turning away from You in times of trial or distraction. Grant us the grace to remain faithful to Your covenant, so that we may enter into Your eternal rest.
May our lives be a perpetual hymn of praise and gratitude to You.
Amen.
September 1st marked the start of the Season of Creation (September 1 – October 4), an ecumenical season inviting Christians around the world to pray and care for God's creation, rooted in Pope Francis's Laudato Si'.
In Your hands are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the mountains are Yours also. The sea is Yours, for You made it, and Your hands formed the dry land.
We thank You, Lord, for the beauty of Your creation, for the life You have given us, and for sustaining us each day by Your providence.
Come O faithful, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
For You are our God, and we are the people of Your pasture, the sheep of Your hand. Thank You for guiding us, protecting us, and feeding us with Your Word and Sacraments.
O Lord, today, as we hear Your voice, harden not our hearts. Keep us from turning away from You in times of trial or distraction. Grant us the grace to remain faithful to Your covenant, so that we may enter into Your eternal rest.
May our lives be a perpetual hymn of praise and gratitude to You.
Amen.
Prayer for healing:
Heavenly Father, we surrender our loved one and friends who are in need
of healing to your loving care and miraculous healing. May the
life-giving powers of your touch flow into every cell of their bodies
and into the very depth of their souls, cleansing, purifying, and restoring
them to wholeness and full life. Grant them the strength, courage, and
patience to endure their suffering. Help them to accept God's will and
to find peace in His love. At this time we lift up the following people:
Eunice Kim, Iris Simon, Eloise Dutil, George Horton, Don Mamayek, Janet Schaffer, Bernice Comfort, John and Buddy Fox, Abbi,
Debbie, EJ, Gretchen, Bob and Aida Heller, Lynn, Patti Sharrow, Jill, ... whom else should we pray
for ...
Last week's Practice of Faith
- How do we think as God does, not as humans?
- What is Jesus asking you to risk in taking up your cross?
Ezekiel 33:7-9
In the Catholic Lectionary, Ezekiel 33:7–9 and Matthew 18:15–20 are paired directly as the First Reading and Gospel for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A).Ezekiel 33 sets up a stark moral choice: if the watchman sees danger and warns the wicked person, the watchman is blameless regardless of how the person responds. However, if the watchman remains silent out of fear or apathy, God will hold the watchman responsible for the wicked person's demise.
Bishop Barron draws two conclusions:
Co-Responsibility: Barron stresses that we are spiritually bound to one another. Indifference toward a neighbor's spiritual ruin is a failure of charity.
The Trap of False Tolerance: In modern culture, remaining silent in the face of wrong behavior is often re-branded as "tolerance" or "minding one's own business." Barron argues that biblical love (agape) refuses to stand idly by while someone walks down a path of self-destruction.
The purpose of warning the wicked person is amendment and healing, not condemnation. For this the prophet must speak with courage, clarity, and deep affection, leaving the individual free to respond to God's grace
Bishop Barron draws two conclusions:
Co-Responsibility: Barron stresses that we are spiritually bound to one another. Indifference toward a neighbor's spiritual ruin is a failure of charity.
The Trap of False Tolerance: In modern culture, remaining silent in the face of wrong behavior is often re-branded as "tolerance" or "minding one's own business." Barron argues that biblical love (agape) refuses to stand idly by while someone walks down a path of self-destruction.
The purpose of warning the wicked person is amendment and healing, not condemnation. For this the prophet must speak with courage, clarity, and deep affection, leaving the individual free to respond to God's grace
Psalm 95
Bishop Barron stresses the spiritual weight of the word "today" in the phrase "O that today you would listen to his voice!". There is an urgency even today because God encounters each of us exclusively in the present moment.The Israelites tested God despite having seen His miraculous works during the wilderness wanderings at Massah and Meribah - Massah means "testing" or "trial" whereas Meribah means "quarreling" or "strife".
Massah refers to a crucial episode during the Exodus when the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses due to a severe lack of water in the desert. After escaping bondage on Egypt and crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites camped at Rephidim in the wilderness. Finding no water to drink, the people panicked and turned aggressively on Moses, asking, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" (Exodus 17:3)"
This was a crisis of faith.
God instructed Moses to take some of the elders of Israel and lead them to Mount Horeb (Sinai) and strike a specific rock with his staff, the same one used to part the Red Sea and water gushed out.
A second but related event occurs decades later at Kadesh (also named Meribah) in Numbers 20:1–13. There, when the people complained again, God commanded Moses to speak to the rock to yield its water. Instead, an angry Moses struck the rock twice resulting in God barring Moses and Aaron from entering the Promised Land because they did not have confidence in him to acknowledge his holiness before the angry mob.
Romans 13:8-10
This second reading Romans 13:8-10, provides the essential key for integrating Ezekiel 33:7-9 and Matthew 18:15-20: fraternal correction must never be an act of self-righteous judgement, legalism, or anger.Drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Barron defines agape love as "willing the good of the other as other." This kind of love is not a fleeting emotional state, a feeling, or mere tolerance. It is a deliberate, active orientation of the will toward another person's ultimate good. Bishop Barron says that because we receive an ocean of unmerited grace from God, in turn we are perpetually in debt to extend that grace to every neighbour we encounter. Loving your neighbour as yourself means replacing ego-driven desires, power dynamics, and self-absorption with radical, self-sacrificial service of others.
Matthew 18:15-20
This passage, Matthew 18:15-20, addresses a concept called fraternal correction where the idea is to rectify the sinful behaviour of someone out of true love and concern for the person's soul, and not pride, anger, or superiority. Bishop Barron emphasizes that Christ is giving us a moral duty and a spiritual path for restoring communion and bringing a wandering soul back to the flock.
St Augustine said we have a moral obligation to help our sinful neighbor because allowing the sinful behaviour to go unaddressed is probably worse than the sinful behaviour itself. St Thomas Aquinas agreed with this and provided 3 key points
- Certainty: The sin must be certain, not based on mere suspicion or gossip.
- Hope of Amendment: There must be a reasonable expectation that the offender will accept the correction and improve, rather than become more hardened in sin or lash out.
- Right Intention: The motivator must be true love and concern for the person's soul, not pride, anger, or superiority.
If private counsel fails, Jesus instructs bringing one or two others, and finally bringing it to the church (ecclesia) not to condemn, but to establish the objective truth and show the offender the collective love and concern of the community.
If the person refuses even the Church community, Jesus says to treat them as Jesus would treat "a Gentile or a tax collector." With mercy, outreach, and continuous effort to save them.
Treating someone as an outsider doesn't mean abandoning them to hatred; it means shifting your strategy from internal correction to fresh evangelization.
By saying, what the Church binds or looses on earth is bound or loosed in heaven, Christ gives the Church true, divine authority to govern, heal, and forgive, acting in the name of Christ to maintain spiritual order.
By saying, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Christ sanctifies Christian prayer and reconciliation as being more than mere private affairs - rather Christ Himself is sacramentally and spiritually present, multiplying the power of their prayer.
This week's Practice of Faith
- Personal interpretation: Who has wronged you or who did you wrong - in the light of today's readings how would you act differently- Communal interpretation: where can I be more loving and just?
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