In the Acts of the Apostles you can get the impression that the early Church used to get along perfectly and sing kum-ba-ya together. The epistles of St. Paul demonstrate that those first Christians, like all later Christians, had to work to create unity. In St. Matthew’s Gospel Jesus describes a three step process “when your brother sins against you.” If at the end of the process of reconciliation there is still no unity “treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” But how did Jesus treat the sinner and the tax collector? He kept welcoming them to the table of fellowship! In other words, the work of reconciliation is never done. We can never write someone out of our lives.
