Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (18: 15-20) in which Jesus tells his disciples how to respectfully call each other to account and says, ‘wherever two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them’. Fr Paul says, the Gospel writer, Matthew is a realist. Despite the presence of Christ in the Christian community there are going to be disagreements, misunderstandings, fights in every community and in every family. The vital thing is to sort them out and not to let them fester. So in this Gospel we are given a safe process. Interestingly, it is the same process as is laid down in the Community Rule of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran. When we look at this process, Fr Paul notes, we might complain that it is not very Christian of Matthew to abandon the offending brother or sister to be as a hated tax-collector, even after the failure of attempts at reconciliation. But note that just afterwards (and as we will hear in tomorrow’s Gospel), this process of attempted reconciliation is supplemented by Jesus’ teaching that we have to forgive not just seven times but seventy-seven times. This means again and again and again, we have to try without limit – even if the attempts at reconciliation have failed we continue to try. We also get the reminder that Christ is present always in his community. Therefore, the strength of the community both to reconcile differences and to make further requests of the Father lies in the presence of Jesus within it. It is especially striking that the same promise is here given to the Church had earlier been given to Peter himself. Today Fr Paul invites us to reflect on… ‘Who do I need to be reconciled with?’