Jesus said to his disciples, if your brother should commit some wrong against you, go and point out his fault, but keep it between the two of you. If he listens to you, you will have won your brother over. If he does not listen, however, summon another so that every case may stand on the word of two or three witnesses. If he ignores them, refer it to the church. If he ignores even the church, then treat him as you would a gentile or a tax collector. I declare to you, whatever you declare bound on earth shall be held bound in heaven, and whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I tell you, if two of you join your voices on earth to pray for anything whatever, it shall be granted you by my father in heaven. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. (Matthew 18:15-20)

I was reading this last week in an issue of The Tablet an article about a priest in New Guinea, and he was talking about the sudden rise of sects in New Guinea--the kind of fundamentalist, evangelical, Adventist churches, and how suddenly they are growing by leaps and bounds. And he said that one of the things he was interested in was, what are their services like, and what is it that is attracting so many people to them--particularly the Seventh-Day Adventists, who are kind of destroying the culture of the natives of New Guinea by not allowing dance, by not allowing certain kinds of music, and so forth. So he said, "I decided to go to one of their services. And as I walked into the assembly hall, this woman came up to me and sniffed very audibly. It could be heard, the sniff, by everyone standing around. And she said to me, Sir, I smell sin. You should go to the front of the assembly hall, kneel down, confess your sins to God, and beg his forgiveness."'

That incident reminds me of this morning's Gospel, the confrontation of a sinner. It is the first time though that I that had ever heard that sin smells; usually the person smells, but hardly does sin smell. Our Gospel this morning is just about that. It is what we can call a confrontational story, or an other-seeking story, a story about seeking another person. And what Matthew is talking about and what Matthew is primarily concerned about, are people who lapse away from the Faith. It is a question that perplexed the early church. It is a question that is perplexing the church today. The largest Catholic church in the state of Washington, indeed in any state of the Union, indeed in the world, are the Catholics who never practice openly their faith. And the question arises, what does one do about it, how does one get them back home, so to speak?

So what Matthew is talking about is that type of disciple, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And what he is talking about is a disciple tempted by false teaching, by immoral, antisocial persons or practices. A person who has started to live unfaithfully the teachings of Jesus. Immorally living the teachings of Jesus. The sin is no longer just an attraction for such a person. Matthew looks upon that sin as now a way of life. It is a life for that person. And it is only the Christian brother that Matthew is concerned about here, in this particular passage. It's the particular Christian brother or sister who has strayed and who is to be confronted. Matthew's whole concern is that baptism unites us with a congregation of persons whose lives are our business. In other words, as John Donne would say, "No man is an island unto himself." And the question then arises, why does one confront such a person. And the answer could easily be given by Matthew because of Christ's reputation, because of the Church's integrity, or because the person's salvation is at stake. But only clear sin is the thing that motivates the confrontation. Behavior clearly, outwardly consistently contrary to Christ's teaching. Not supposed sin, nor even the sin that the poor woman in New Guinea thought she could smell. It has to be public, and the sin of scandal is what is meant here, and we have to remember everything we said about scandal--the stumbling stone--last week (Sept. 1, 1996)--the sin that leads people away from God.

And what are we talking about here? Sin that is deliberately hurting the faith of other believers by teaching, or by living unrepentedly or shamefully contrary to God or to Christ's teaching and words. And the sins that one could hold up are exactly what Paul states in the Epistle: sins of idolatry; sins of not caring about or providing for parents--the fourth commandment is really a commandment for adults, not for children; violating human life wantonly; living in adultery willfully; stealing from others intentionally; or unmitigated avarice--not caring what means or what ends one uses to get what one wants, because one wants it so badly. What Matthew is talking about--and he's talking about this even when he talks about the stray sheep--is evangelizing the evangelized, which is always very difficult. But of course that brings up the question, how to confront and who should confront. And how to confront is a very delicate matter. We always must be careful that we don't approach such a person with too much self-confidence, or too much self-righteousness. Or that we don't do so hatefully.

We also have to remember that we have to do it privately, not publicly. We also have to remember that we must do it gently. Souls are very delicate, and they must be treated very delicately. We have to take the other person seriously as a person. And we have to treat the other person with impressive carefulness. And I cannot emphasize that enough--impressive carefulness. The honor of the confronted one has to be guarded, and it has to be guarded with a very scrupulous care. There's always the temptation you know in reformers; the sin is public, therefore the confrontation, the correction must be public too. But there's a bit of the lex talionis about that, a tit-for-tat kind of thing. And let me say that the tit-for-tat is not Christian love, it has no respect for other people, for the integrity of other people. What is more, we may be wrong. Very often in private confrontation, it may turn out that it is the confronter who has misjudged and misunderstood, rather than the one who is confronted. Private confrontation at least gives some room for the person who is accused, and we do have an axiom and a principle of law in Anglo-Saxon law, that you are innocent until proven guilty.

I'm reminded here of a great deal that Benedict has in his rule in directions to the abbot on how to handle erring brethren. Benedict says that the abbot must adapt himself to a variety of characters. And I can remember very early in my monastic life, old Abbot Rafael saying to us at conferences, looking out the window and smiling whimsically, "And believe me, brothers, they are characters"--and of course he meant us. The abbot also, if he can't confront himself for various reasons, Benedict says, sends others--wise, older brethren who know how to win people over, not to crush them, not to break them, or as Isaiah would say, not to snuff out the burning wick or break the bruised reed. Benedict reminds the abbot that he has the care of weak souls, that he's not to be a tyrant over the sound and well. He also reminds the abbot that he must be careful not to drive his flock too hard, lest they all perish in one day. And eventually Benedict says, if the abbot tries everything, there is still one great weapon that he should try, and that is the weapon of his own prayer and the prayer of the community. I know, having been a superior for many years, that people can often misjudge one who is in authority, or come down harshly on one who is in authority. That one doesn't act fast enough, swift enough, harsh enough, strong enough. And yet I think anyone who has been in a position of spiritual leadership should always have in mind that souls are very precious, and they're very delicate. And they must be treated as precious and delicate.

Years ago, one of my great mentors in monastic life and theology was the abbot who taught me pastoral theology, the abbot whose pectoral cross I wear practically every day. And he was very slow to act. And Archbishop Dwyer of Portland criticized him severely--publicly and privately. In fact, when he went to see the Archbishop in Portland at the Chancery, Abbot told me that the Archbishop would keep him waiting two or three hours before letting him come in, so disgusted was the Archbishop with the abbot's treatment of people. And yet at Abbot Damien's funeral, Archbishop Dwyer got up and he alluded to that. And he said, "You know, I misjudged him. I thought he was not swift enough, fast enough, harsh enough, to condemn people. But then I read the Rule of Benedict, and I came to the conclusion that the abbot had that great gift of recognizing the delicacy of souls, and I've come to realize, now that he is dead, that he was right and I was wrong. And I wish publicly to state that."

And of course this means that we have to avoid gossip. Jesus never tells us to talk to others when a brother offends us or sins. The brother deserves that we go to him or her before. You know, the offender should be spoken with, not spoken about, and a great deal of harm could be avoided if we speak with the offender rather than about the offender. And one of the things that we should be careful about is that we never break the channel of communication, at least that we are never the ones that break the channel of communication. Because you never know when the other person, the person who has offended, might want to come back, might want to make reparation, amends, might want to make amends. And if we have broken the channel of communication, then we have destroyed the possibility that that person might come to us.

This brings us finally to the last point. Why confront? Is it to bring back a sinner? Oh, that's there, yes. But I think for Matthew, if you read the Gospel carefully, if you read Jesus' teaching carefully, the primary motive is not to bring back the sinner. That will happen, yes. But the primary motive is to gain a brother or sister in the Lord. Having a brother or sister in the Lord for Matthew is the ultimate good that one should pursue. And of course these liKle instructions that Matthew has on confrontation are something that can apply to all of us, if not in actuality, then certainly in aKitude. But how they would help bishops, how they would help superiors, how they would even help parents, teachers, bosses, people in community, people in family. But always, and I cannot stress this enough, because it's part of our monastic heritage, and I have to confess I'm part of that heritage, we must in the Latin phrase, festina lente, make haste slowly. Remember that we are dealing with people, and people are delicate, and people are precious, and people are beloved in the sight of God.