Matthew 5:23-24 Question

[hawksnest23]

“23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister[a] has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

Hello, so this passage confuses me a bit. If I have wronged someone, ought I seek forgiveness before going to mass? Would the mass be a “gift?” I know it is good to seek reconciliation, of course, but my question is more along the lines of, “If I don’t seek reconciliation, or if I seek reconciliation after mass, is my mass attendance still valid?”

 

[Maximilian75]

It is, but if you have sinned mortally then you cannot reccieve Holy Communion

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Any reason you’re rehashing the same question from a couple of weeks ago?

Gifts at the Altar Moral Theology

23 “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” - Matthew 5: 23-24 Hey, so I have a few questions about this passage. What would be “gifts” at the altar? At mass, would that be the offertory, would that be receiving communion, would that be the whole mass itself? Also, it’s probably imposs…

 

[pianistclare]

The Pharisees are blamed by our Lord for their avarice, in scrupulously exacting tithes of the most trifling things, while they lived in a constant neglect of their duty, both to God and their neighbor.

 

[hawksnest23]

Cor_ad_Cor, I suppose I am still a little unclear. In fact, your response to my last post left me a little confused:

I would say it’s our participation in Mass and reception of Communion (the gifts) and that’s one reason we have a sign of peace before Communion. It’s also one basis for needing to be in a state of grace (confession) before receiving.

When you said “it’s our participation in Mass,” did you mean that our participation in Mass is a gift that we must offer only after we’ve sought reconciliation with our brother or sister?

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

In the old forum rules, you weren’t supposed to open duplicate threads. I guess that’s my reason for raising the question.

Anyway, my comment is that “the gifts” we offer are not a singular thing but can take on many meanings, one of which is our worship. Yes, we always need to make amends with our brother - and the sooner the better - when we can. It’s not always feasible to be precisely literal about it, though. Thus, we have multiple avenues for reconciliation depending on the needs and gravity of our particular circumstances: sacramental confession, the penitential rite within Mass, actually reconciling with someone we’ve wronged, …

Yet, God is the ultimate dispensary of mercy, so we must approach him in our brokenness before we can approach him in any other way. (Don’t stop going to Mass due to sin, but seek to set things right ASAP, before Mass being the ideal. And as a wise priest once told me, we strive for the ideal, but we’re human, so we don’t quite get there.)

 

[Gorgias]

Hello, so this passage confuses me a bit. If I have wronged someone, ought I seek forgiveness before going to mass?

Properly speaking, Jesus isn’t talking about “Mass”. He’s talking about going to the temple in order to offer a sacrifice.

So, this passage isn’t telling you that you should leave Mass if you still need to reconcile with someone. Stay at Mass, pray, and then don’t forget to reconcile!

There’s another issue here: I don’t think we can limit it to times when we’ve wronged someone. Jesus isn’t limiting it like that – He didn’t say “when you have sinned against another”! So, this could simply be a matter of someone being mad at you – not that you’re the one in the wrong! It’s a much higher standard than “seek forgiveness”, but rather, also includes “forgive others”, too!