Facebook has gone from a start up to a social network with over 3.12 billion users and Twitter has over 611 million active   users. In a short period of time, through social media, people have found a new voice, a new way to connect. In today’s  Gospel (Matthew 18:15-20), we learn that 2,000 years ago   Jesus also told us that there is power in numbers. First he says, ‘If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven’. And then he says ‘where two or three of you are gathered in my name, I am there among them’. Jesus offers a procedure for helping others to see the error of their ways and turn again to God. What Jesus was saying was: ‘If anyone sins against you, spare no  effort to make that person admit the fault, and get things right again between you’. If we feel that someone has wronged us, we should put our complaint into words. The worst thing we can do about a wrong is to brood over it – that is fatal. It can poison heart and mind until we can think of nothing else but our sense of personal injury. If we have a difference with someone, there is only one way to settle it, namely face to face. If a private and  personal meeting fails in its purpose, we should take other people along with us as witnesses should a charge be sustained. What Jesus said is something like this, ‘When you have given wrongdoers every chance and they still remain stubborn, you may think that they are no better than tax collectors and the Gentiles hopeless cases. My experience is that they too have hearts to be touched and there are many of them, like Matthew and Zacchaeus, who are among my special friends.  Even if the suborn sinners are like tax-collectors or Gentiles, you may still win them over as I have done’.  Jesus regards no one as a hopeless case and neither should we.

“If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves.”