Daily Catholic Lectio
Wed, 12 Aug 2026
XIX Week in Ordinary Time
Eze 9:1-7. 10:18-22. Mt 18:15-20
Winning the Other
Today’s Gospel reading is taken from the community discourse of Matthew. Even though each believer had received Christian faith personally, they also had the identity of being a community. When feelings such as lack of understanding, being misunderstood, irritation, disappointment, anger, enmity, and jealousy became strong, community life was disturbed.
In the Acts of the Apostles, we read: “The whole group of believers was of one heart and soul.” Yet, even there, there were quarrels, conflicts, and a spirit of competition. Even if a community is built on faith in God, human beings still live by showing their human nature.
In today’s first reading, the prophet Ezekiel sees a vision. He sees that “each one had a weapon of destruction in his hand.” Each one of us too has a weapon of destruction in our hand. It may be a negative thought in our heart. It may be an attitude that desires harm for another person. It may be lying, enmity, jealousy, anger, gossip, or slander. All these are weapons of destruction that we carry. Through them, relationships are damaged.
The Gospel reading teaches us that we must somehow win back the person who sins against a believer. First, personally. Then, in the presence of two or three. Finally, before the Church. The word ekklesia, meaning “Church,” is used here for the first time.
The Gospel reading ends by saying that the presence of God is there among relationships that live in unity of heart.
In our family, parish, diocese, and other places of life, let us try somehow to win one another and preserve our relationship. Building a relationship grows slowly, like the growth of a coconut tree. But the breaking of a relationship happens suddenly, like the fall of a coconut.
Let us win the other in the family, and the community.
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
A Yesni Prays Initiative
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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