Ezekiel 9:1-7; 10:18-22 / Matthew 18:15-20
When we read the 1st reading and thought about it, we may wonder what kind of message is there in it.
In fact, what we read may make us grimace as we hear words like "strike", "show neither pity nor mercy to old men, young men, virgins, children, women, kill and exterminate them all".
Those were words from God! And there is even more: Defile the Temple, fill the courts with corpses, and go. And then the six men went out and hacked their way through the city.
That really sounds gruesome. But we have to remember that it belongs to the genre of apocalyptic language where images are bold and vivid and the language of strong and vindictive.
The point about apocalyptic language is that it is time for judgement where the good and bad are separated and the good is vindicated and the bad is punished.
Hence, there was a man in white with a scribe's ink horn in his belt and he was instructed to mark a cross on the foreheads of those who deplore and disapprove of all the filth committed.
On the other hand, the message of the Good News is about salvation and the gospel passages urges us to be instruments of reconciliation.
Certainly, we have to deplore and disapprove of sin and wrong doing. But at the same time we cannot just sit by and wait for the Lord to save us and wait for those wrong doers to be condemned.
Jesus came to seek and save what was lost. If we truly believe that we will be saved and vindicated, then we too would want to share this gift of salvation with others.
May we continue to strive for reconciliation and work for the salvation of others as well as for ourselves.