Is reconciliation possible in the comments section?

A Reflection for Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

Part of my job at America is monitoring the comments people make on our videos and podcasts. As you might guess, they aren’t always positive, and at times they are mean-spirited or even threatening. Most, if not all, of these comments come from self-described Catholics. It’s rare, but when a commenter chooses to justify the grounds for making such a comment, they often refer—implicitly or explicitly—to today’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew, which is widely recognized by Christians as the Scriptural basis for offering each other “fraternal correction.”

When another Christian has sinned against you, Jesus tells us, this is the way to go about reconciliation: First, approach them privately about the matter. If that doesn’t work, approach them with one or two others. If that doesn’t solve the issue, bring the matter to the church—that is, the local community. If that doesn’t work, as a very last resort, kick them out of the community.

As with many Scripture passages, there are a number of ways we can read it. On one level, Jesus seems determined that his followers “not make a scene.” The first—therefore presumably the most important—instruction is to seek reconciliation privately between the affected parties. On another level, we can interpret this four-tiered system as Jesus granting permission to do whatever is necessary to correct a sinner. The obvious question for us as we ponder posting a “fraternal correction” is: “How am I interpreting and applying this instruction?”

And then there is a deeper question: “Did my comment help to facilitate reconciliation?” From reading so many “fraternal corrections” online, my sense is that little (if any) reconciliation takes place in public comments sections. As important as comments are—to broaden our perspectives, and for legitimate dialogue and debate—they are not particularly constructive in this regard.

Finally, it’s worth reflecting on our motivation to “correct” the sins of others in the first place. Of course, Christian morality is an essential part of discipleship and communion, and it holds each of the baptized to a high standard. It’s a standard that every single Christian in this world—commenter or not—has failed to live up to. But what is it deep inside our beings that drives us, sometimes uncontrollably, to make harsh and knowingly ineffectual public corrections? Why do we spend our time publicly commenting as a way of living our discipleship, as opposed to, say, feeding the hungry, or working to overcome our sins of pride and wrath?