'For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.' Sunday Reflections, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Prayer Before a Meal

Adriaen Jansz van Ostade [Web Gallery of Art]

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matthew 18:20).

Readings(New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Matthew 18:15-20 (English Standard Version Anglicised)

Jesus said to his disciples:

'If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established 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. 

'Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 

'Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.'

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

During my primary school years I came to know an exceptional person, Brother Mícheál. S. Ó Flaitile, known to us as ‘Pancho’ from the sidekick of the Cisco Kid, a syndicated comic-strip [above] that we used to read in The Irish Press, an Irish daily newspaper that no longer exists. Our 'Pancho', like the Cisco Kid's friend, was on the pudgy side, though minus the hair and moustache. He organized an Irish-speaking club during my primary school years and arranged for me to be secretary. I don’t think I was too happy at the time to get that job but I realized later that he had spotted my ability to write. Other teachers had encouraged me in this too.

My class was blessed to have had Brother Ó Flaitile in our last two years in secondary school, 1959 to 1961, when we were preparing for our all-important Leaving Certificate examination. He taught us Irish and Latin. He probably should have been teaching at university level. What I remember most of all about him was his character. Everyone described him as ‘fear uasal’, the Irish for 'a noble man' – as distinct from 'a nobleman’. Maybe 'a man of noble character' would be a better translation. A stare from him made you feel humbled, but not humiliated. He had the kind of authority that Jesus had, that we read about in the gospels.

I remember one event in our last year. ‘Pancho’ used to take the A and B sections - another set of teachers taught the C and D sections - for religion class together during the last period before lunch every day. One day he scolded a student in the B section for something or other that was trivial and the student himself and the rest of us took it in our stride and forgot about it. We were nearly 70 boys aged between 16 and 18. 'Pancho' was in his late 50s then. The next day Brother Ó Flaitile apologized to the boy in question and to the rest of us because he had discovered that the student hadn’t done what he had accused him of. Whatever it was, it had been very insignificant. But the apology of our revered teacher was for me a formative moment, a moment when I experienced the truth of the words in today's Gospel: For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. I mentioned the incident to Brother Ó Flaitile  many years later when he was in his 80s. He told me he didn’t remember it, but he smiled. He died in the late 1980s. 

The Merciful Christ

Juan Martínez Montañes [Web Gallery of Art]

Some years ago a classmate told me about an incident between himself and Brother Ó Flaitile in 1959 when we were on a summer school/holiday in an Irish-speaking part of County Galway. If my friend had told me the story at the time I would not have believed him. He got angry with ‘Pancho’ over something or other and used a four-letter word that nobody would ever express to an adult, least of all to a religious brother and teacher whom we revered. The lad stormed back to the house where he was staying and almost immediately felt remorse. He went back to ‘Pancho’ and apologized. The Brother accepted this totally and unconditionally and never referred to the incident again.

Looking back on the first incident I figure that the student in question must have gone to 'Pancho' afterwards and explained to him what had really happened. Brother Ó Flaitile was the kind of authority figure whom you felt free to approach in such a situation. If that is what happened, and I believe it was, then the opening words of today's gospel were what we all experienced in class the following day: If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother

Brother Ó Flaitile's asking for forgiveness that day was all the more powerful because he was more than three times our age, an authority figure, a religious brother and a truly revered person. What he did showed why he was revered, as did the 'four-letter word incident' with my classmate.

After my father, I don't think that anyone else had such a formative influence on me when I was young as 'Pancho'. Solas na bhFlaitheas ar an mbeirt acu - The Light of Heaven on both of them.

A Thiarna, déan Trócaire

Setting by Patrick Davey from his Aifreann Feirste (Belfast Mass)

A Thiarna, déan Trócaire;

Lord, have mercy;

A Chríost (a Chríost), dean trócaire.

Christ (Christ), have mercy.

Brother Ó Flaitile had a great love for the Irish language and a keen sense of the artistic. I think he would have liked Patrick Davey's setting of the Kyrie.

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Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Tuesday 8 September

Birth of the Virgin

Jerónimo Antonio Ezquerra [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings for Mass from the New American Bible Lectionary.

Readings for Mass from the Jerusalem Bible Lectionary.

Ave Regina Caelorum

Composed by Cipriano de Rore, sung by the VOCES8 Foundation Choir

Ave Regina caelorum,

Mater Regis angelorum,

O Maria, flos virginum,

Velut rosa vel lilium.

Funde preces ad Dominum

Pro salute fidelium.

Amen.

Hail, Queen of Heaven,

Mother of the King of Angels,

O Mary, flower of Virgins,

Like a rose or a lily;

Pour out prayers to the Lord

For the salvation of the faithful,

Amen.

This is a different hymn from the Ave, Regina Caelorum that is sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer), especially from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on 2 February through Wednesday of Holy Week.