FORGIVENESS AND EXPULSION IN THE CHURCH

Josh. 3:7-10, 11, 13-17; Ps. 113; Matt. 18:21-19:1

“Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me,

and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you

seven times, but seventy times seven’” (Matt. 18:21-22).

We should always try to warn in a loving way a brother who is a Christian if he falls

into and acts on heretical views that seriously harm the Church. The goal is always to try to draw him back into the community. We should try to help him recognize his error and repent of it, so that we can welcome him back with love and restore him. I know how many times I have fallen into imperfections that wound my spirit and put me into a depression, and I know how many times I have begged God to forgive me and free me from this terrible pain of guilt that so often depresses me. Jesus taught us that a way to be forgiven is to forgive our brothers who have offended us. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray,

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” And Jesus

adds: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;

but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your

trespasses” (Matt. 18:14-15).

I do not want to be like the servant in today’s parable who was forgiven an enormous

debt, and then refused to forgive the very small debt of his fellow servant. For doing this, he was severely punished, and his debt was not forgiven. If after God has forgiven me so much, I must also forgive others.

Yet we see that the king pardoned this servant’s debt in the beginning because he

repented and promised to pay in full. His fellow servant also repented and promised to

pay in full. Jesus teaches us that if a man wants to be forgiven, he should repent and

promise to correct his ways. We should privately warn a serious offender to bring him to

repentance (Matt. 18:15). “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with

you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he

refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the

church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:16-17). St. Paul says the same: “As for a man who is factious (hairetikon anthropon, i.e. “a heretical man”), after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him” (Tit. 3:10). If he does not repent after many warnings, we should have nothing further to do with him.

This is an important teaching for the Church today. The Church must protect herself

and defend the orthodox Christian faith. If a priest, for example, publicly rejects the

orthodox faith in a grave matter that has been clearly and explicitly explained to him by

the official Church, he should be warned with love as a brother so that he may come to

see his error and repent of it. If after numerous warnings by his superiors, he continues to attack Church doctrine in a grave matter and to propagate his views using the mass media, he must be more strictly warned that if he does not repent, he will be kaicized and dismissed from his pastorate. The Church has the obligation to protect herself in this way and to defend the orthodoxy of the Christian faith for the good of the faithful and of all those to whom she hopes to minister.