Escalation with charity

Our Lord's admonition at the beginning of today's Gospel (Matthew 18:15-20) is a familiar one, but always worth remembering, especially in this age of hyper-litigation and cyber-calumny.

If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault
between you and him alone.

If he listens to you,
you have won over your brother.

If he does not listen,
take one or two others along with you,
so that every fact may be established
on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them,
tell the Church.

If he refuses to listen even to the Church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

We need to be patient.
We need to be firm.
We need to be faithful.
We need to be loving.
We need to be truthful.

We need to be like Christ.