In today’s Gospel, Christ offers great wisdom on how to address someone who has wronged us. First, “go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.” If he does not listen, bring along a third party to help remedy the dispute. If he still does not listen, only then should we bring the dispute before the Church, or to a higher authority, to resolve the issue. St. Ignatius expresses a similar sentiment in his tenth rule for “thinking with the Church”: when dealing with wrongdoing, we shouldn’t immediately make the dispute public. Instead, we should go to the one who has the ability to remedy the situation, whether to the one who has wronged us or to a superior.
Our world stands to profit much from this advice. Think of how often we are tempted to gossip or go straight to social media with our disputes – we want the world to hear how we have been wronged. But Christ encourages us to take a more virtuous path. Our goal should not be revenge, but reconciliation. Today, then, let’s pray for the grace to approach even those who injure us with love and prudence, as Christ desires.