Friar Luciano Audisio, OAR, reflects on this Sunday’s Gospel, in which Jesus proposes a path of reconciliation to face conflicts within the Christian community. Far from a logic of condemnation, the Lord invites us to seek out our brother with patience, protect his dignity, and make listening the first step toward mercy. Fraternal correction is born of love and finds its fulfillment in the presence of Christ, who remains wherever two or three are gathered in his name.
What does fraternal correction mean according to Jesus?
This Sunday’s Gospel introduces us to one of the most delicate and demanding passages of Christian life: how to act when a brother sins against us. Jesus does not offer a disciplinary recipe or a mechanism to impose authority. Rather, he proposes a path of searching, listening, and reconciliation. Therefore, to understand Mt 18:15-20, it is worth remembering that these words appear immediately after the parable of the lost sheep. The brother who has sinned is not, above all, a guilty party to be punished; he is a sheep at risk of being lost, whom the community is called to seek.
The first step is surprisingly simple: “If your brother sins, go and point out his fault, just between the two of you.” The Greek expression κατ᾽ ἰδίαν, “in private,” contains a profound delicacy. Jesus does not begin by bringing the conflict before others, but by protecting the brother’s dignity. Christian correction should never become humiliation, exposure, or a desire to prove that we are right. Before speaking of the other’s fault in front of the community, we are called to speak with him.
Here a decisive word of the text appears: “listen.” The verb to listen (ἀκούειν) is repeated insistently. The purpose is not simply to tell the other that they are wrong, but to open a space where they can listen and be heard. The tradition of Israel had already understood the importance of fraternal correction when it commanded: “you shall rebuke your neighbor.” But Matthew brings this teaching into a new logic: correcting is still a way of searching. Whoever corrects a brother should not do so from a position of superiority, but from the hope that he can still be recovered.
If the brother does not listen, Jesus proposes a second step: “take one or two others along with you.” The conflict ceases to be strictly private, but it does not yet become a public trial. The others are not summoned to form a tribunal against the brother, but to help the truth be recognized and communion restored. Even here a pedagogy of patience appears: before reaching the entire community, a new opportunity is offered.
Finally, if he still does not listen, the Church intervenes. The word ekklesía (ἐκκλησία) evokes the assembly summoned by God. This means that community life cannot ignore the wounds that exist among its members. An authentic Christian community is not one where there are never conflicts, but one that knows how to face them without turning them into definitive divisions.
Jesus’ expression may surprise us: “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” But Matthew is precisely the Gospel that shows Jesus approaching tax collectors and sinners and that ends by sending his disciples to all nations. Therefore, this phrase should not be interpreted simply as a definitive condemnation. If someone cannot be reintegrated through the path of fraternal correction, they once again become an object of mission. The door does not close: the way of searching changes.
Listening to one’s brother is to open a path of reconciliation
Then we better understand the following words: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The Christian authority to “bind and loose” is not power to control, but responsibility to discern. The Church receives authority when it seeks the truth without abandoning mercy, when it protects communion without hiding sin, and when it corrects without ceasing to love.
And so we reach the heart of the passage: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” These words are not a pious phrase added at the end. They are the culmination of the entire process. Wherever two or three gather to seek their brother, to listen, discern, and reconcile, Christ becomes present. The community discovers that, while trying to heal a wound, it was being visited by the Lord.
Perhaps this is the question the Gospel leaves us today: do we know how to listen? In our communities, families, and relationships, we may find it very easy to speak, judge, and point fingers, but perhaps we lack ears capable of listening without humiliating. The Gospel invites us to multiply those ears. First one; then two or three; finally the whole community. Each step is an opportunity so that no one is lost.
Mercy always seeks the brother
Fraternal correction, then, is born of mercy. It does not consist in defeating the other, but in believing that they can return. It does not seek to have the last word, but to open a path. And when that path is traveled with humility, even in the midst of conflict, Jesus’ promise is fulfilled: He remains in the midst of those who gather in his name.
That is the logic of the Gospel. May our communities be places where the truth can be spoken without violence, where sin can be recognized without humiliation, and where every brother can discover that, rather than being condemned, he is sought, listened to, and loved by God.
When Listening Becomes Mercy: The Evangelical Path of Fraternal Correction
Friar Luciano Audisio, OAR, reflects on this Sunday’s Gospel, in which Jesus proposes a path of reconciliation to face conflicts within the Christian community. Far from a logic of condemnation, the Lord invites us to seek out our brother with patience, protect his dignity, and make listening the first step toward mercy. Fraternal correction is born of love and finds its fulfillment in the presence of Christ, who remains wherever two or three are gathered in his name.
What does fraternal correction mean according to Jesus?
This Sunday’s Gospel introduces us to one of the most delicate and demanding passages of Christian life: how to act when a brother sins against us. Jesus does not offer a disciplinary recipe or a mechanism to impose authority. Rather, he proposes a path of searching, listening, and reconciliation. Therefore, to understand Mt 18:15-20, it is worth remembering that these words appear immediately after the parable of the lost sheep. The brother who has sinned is not, above all, a guilty party to be punished; he is a sheep at risk of being lost, whom the community is called to seek.
The first step is surprisingly simple: “If your brother sins, go and point out his fault, just between the two of you.” The Greek expression κατ᾽ ἰδίαν, “in private,” contains a profound delicacy. Jesus does not begin by bringing the conflict before others, but by protecting the brother’s dignity. Christian correction should never become humiliation, exposure, or a desire to prove that we are right. Before speaking of the other’s fault in front of the community, we are called to speak with him.
Here a decisive word of the text appears: “listen.” The verb to listen (ἀκούειν) is repeated insistently. The purpose is not simply to tell the other that they are wrong, but to open a space where they can listen and be heard. The tradition of Israel had already understood the importance of fraternal correction when it commanded: “you shall rebuke your neighbor.” But Matthew brings this teaching into a new logic: correcting is still a way of searching. Whoever corrects a brother should not do so from a position of superiority, but from the hope that he can still be recovered.
If the brother does not listen, Jesus proposes a second step: “take one or two others along with you.” The conflict ceases to be strictly private, but it does not yet become a public trial. The others are not summoned to form a tribunal against the brother, but to help the truth be recognized and communion restored. Even here a pedagogy of patience appears: before reaching the entire community, a new opportunity is offered.
Finally, if he still does not listen, the Church intervenes. The word ekklesía (ἐκκλησία) evokes the assembly summoned by God. This means that community life cannot ignore the wounds that exist among its members. An authentic Christian community is not one where there are never conflicts, but one that knows how to face them without turning them into definitive divisions.
Jesus’ expression may surprise us: “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” But Matthew is precisely the Gospel that shows Jesus approaching tax collectors and sinners and that ends by sending his disciples to all nations. Therefore, this phrase should not be interpreted simply as a definitive condemnation. If someone cannot be reintegrated through the path of fraternal correction, they once again become an object of mission. The door does not close: the way of searching changes.
Listening to one’s brother is to open a path of reconciliation
Then we better understand the following words: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The Christian authority to “bind and loose” is not power to control, but responsibility to discern. The Church receives authority when it seeks the truth without abandoning mercy, when it protects communion without hiding sin, and when it corrects without ceasing to love.
And so we reach the heart of the passage: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” These words are not a pious phrase added at the end. They are the culmination of the entire process. Wherever two or three gather to seek their brother, to listen, discern, and reconcile, Christ becomes present. The community discovers that, while trying to heal a wound, it was being visited by the Lord.
Perhaps this is the question the Gospel leaves us today: do we know how to listen? In our communities, families, and relationships, we may find it very easy to speak, judge, and point fingers, but perhaps we lack ears capable of listening without humiliating. The Gospel invites us to multiply those ears. First one; then two or three; finally the whole community. Each step is an opportunity so that no one is lost.
Mercy always seeks the brother
Fraternal correction, then, is born of mercy. It does not consist in defeating the other, but in believing that they can return. It does not seek to have the last word, but to open a path. And when that path is traveled with humility, even in the midst of conflict, Jesus’ promise is fulfilled: He remains in the midst of those who gather in his name.
That is the logic of the Gospel. May our communities be places where the truth can be spoken without violence, where sin can be recognized without humiliation, and where every brother can discover that, rather than being condemned, he is sought, listened to, and loved by God.
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