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23rd Sunday Homily in Ordinary Time, Year A

A warm homily on fraternal correction for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, with three ways to love people enough to tell them the truth.

23rd Sunday Homily in Ordinary Time, Year A

Let me ask you something uncomfortable. Is there someone in your life right now who is quietly heading for trouble, and you’ve said nothing, because it’s awkward, because it’s not your business, because you don’t want to lose the friendship?

Most of us have someone like that. And most of us call our silence “respect” or “minding my own business.” Today’s readings gently take that excuse away from us, and show us something better: the hard, holy work of loving people enough to tell them the truth.

This homily goes with today’s Mass readings. Read the Catholic Daily Readings for 6 September 2026 here

The Watchman Who Couldn’t Stay Quiet

The First Reading gives us a striking picture. God makes the prophet Ezekiel a watchman. Picture a man standing on the city wall, whose one job is to watch the horizon and sound the alarm if danger comes.

And God says something sobering. If the watchman sees the sword coming and stays silent, and people die, their blood is on his hands. But if he sounds the warning, he has done his duty, whether or not people listen. His silence is not neutral. His silence costs lives.

Here’s the part we’d rather skip: God says every one of us is a watchman for the people around us. When we see someone we love walking toward harm, toward a habit that’s destroying them, a choice that will wreck their family, a bitterness that’s eating them alive, our silence is not always kindness. Sometimes it’s just cowardice dressed up as politeness.

The Debt We Can Never Finish Paying

But before we go charging off to correct everyone we know, Paul stops us with the most important verse in today’s readings. Owe nothing to anyone, he says, except to love one another.

Think about that. Every other debt you can pay off. The loan, the favour, the apology. But the debt of love is never marked “paid in full.” You wake up tomorrow still owing love to everyone around you. And Paul says this love is the whole law. Don’t commit adultery, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t covet, all of it comes down to one thing: love your neighbour as yourself.

This is the key that unlocks today’s Gospel. Because the correction Jesus is about to ask of us only works if it’s a payment on that debt of love. Correction that comes from irritation, from superiority, from wanting to be right, that’s not paying the debt of love. That’s just criticism with a holy costume on.

Jesus’ Careful, Loving Path

Now look at how carefully Jesus lays out the path in the Gospel. If your brother sins against you, He says, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.

Notice that first step. Alone. Just the two of you. Not a word to your friends first. Not a post online. Not a complaint to everyone except the person involved. Jesus’ very first move is the one that protects the other person’s dignity most. You go to them, privately, quietly, giving them every chance to hear you without shame.

Only if that fails do you bring one or two others. Only if that fails do you bring it to the Church. Every step is designed to win the person back, not to expose them. The goal is never to prove you were right. The goal, always, is in Jesus’ own words: “you have gained your brother.” Won back. Rescued. Restored.

How different this is from the way we usually handle being wronged. We tell everyone but the person. We let it fester. We build a case. Jesus says: go to them, alone, in love, and try to win them back.

Where Two or Three Are Gathered

And then Jesus ends with a promise so famous we sometimes forget where it sits. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

We usually quote that line about prayer meetings, and it’s true there. But look where Jesus actually says it. He says it right after teaching us how to work out our conflicts. He’s promising to be present in the hard conversation. When two people who’ve been hurt sit down in His name and try to be reconciled, Christ Himself is in the room.

That changes everything. The awkward conversation you’ve been dreading isn’t something you do alone. If you go in His name, seeking not to win but to love, He is there in the middle of it, working for a reconciliation you could never manage on your own.

Three Ways to Love Truthfully This Week

So a Gospel about correction should send us home with courage. Here are three ways to live it.

Go to the person, not around them. Is there someone you’ve been talking about instead of talking to? This week, close that gap. If something needs to be said, say it to them, privately and kindly, the way Jesus asks. Stop rehearsing it to everyone else.

Check your motive before your words. Before you correct anyone, ask one question: am I doing this to win them back, or to win? If it’s not coming from love and aiming at love, wait until it is. The debt you owe them is love, not a lecture.

Be brave enough to be corrected. Being a watchman cuts both ways. This week, if someone works up the courage to tell you a hard truth, don’t get defensive. Thank them. It may be Christ, standing in the middle of that awkward moment, loving you through a friend.

The Courage That Comes From Love

Come back to Ezekiel on the wall one last time. He didn’t ask to be the watchman. It would have been so much easier to stay quiet, to keep the peace, to let others deal with it. But God had made him responsible for the people below, and love left him no option but to speak.

That’s the call today. Not to become the fault-finder, the nag, the one who corrects everyone. But to love the people God has placed in your life enough that you won’t stay silent while they walk into harm. And to do it Jesus’ way, privately, gently, always aiming to win them back.

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love. Pay that debt this week, even when it’s hard, and trust that where two gather in His name to be reconciled, Christ is already there in the middle.

Let us Pray

Lord Jesus, You made me a watchman for the people I love, and You promised to stand in the middle of every hard conversation held in Your name. Give me the courage to speak the truth and the love to speak it gently. Free me from the cowardice that stays silent and the pride that only wants to be right. Teach me to correct in order to win back, never to wound, and make me humble enough to be corrected too. Where there is division, let me be a peacemaker, and be there in the midst of us. Amen.

❤️ Thank you dear friend, I hope this homily touched your heart. 🙏 Please do not forget to share this 23rd Sunday homily with your loved ones.

If today’s Gospel reflection spoke to you, do leave a comment below. And please 🫂 join our WhatsApp channel for everyday 🔔 updates 👇👇👇

Today the Church also remembers St. Magnus of Füssen, a missionary monk who cleared forests and hearts alike for the Gospel.

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