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Pope Leo’s Angelus Reflection for 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
St Peter’s Square – Sunday, 6 September August 2026
First Reading – Exekiel 33:7-9
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows: ‘Son of man, I have appointed you as sentry to the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them in my name. If I say to a wicked man: Wicked wretch, you are to die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, however, you do warn a wicked man to renounce his ways and repent, and he does not repent, then he shall die for his sin, but you yourself will have saved your life.’
Second Reading – Romans 13:8-10
Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your neighbors you have carried out your obligations. All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command:
You must love your neighbor as yourself. Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbor; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments.
Sunday Gospel – Matthew 18:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.
‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.
‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’
Pope Leo’s Angelus Reflection
Dear brothers and sisters,
The word of God proclaimed in this Sunday’s liturgy offers us some fundamental criteria for thought and action.
In the Letter to the Romans, we read that every commandment is “summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Romans 13:9).
Saint Paul insists on this point with a very powerful image, one that also appears in the Lord’s Prayer.
He writes: “Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love” (v. 8).
Jesus taught us to ask for and to practice the forgiveness of debts.
Yet there is one debt we owe to one another that does not enslave us: the debt of mutual love.
All the attention, care and goodness we have received make us freer and more capable of responsibility.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus suggests at least two ways for every Christian community to practice mutual love.
The first is to become capable of fraternal correction.
This is a delicate art, too often forgotten, that calls for frankness and a gradual approach.
Speaking honestly with one another — first face to face, then, if necessary, with two or three others, and finally, when required, with the whole community — means facing reality and transforming problems and conflicts into opportunities for growth.
Complaining and speaking ill of others are easier, but they accomplish nothing and leave many situations paralyzed.
The Gospel, instead, teaches us the freedom that comes through charity.
There is also a second way of loving one another as brothers and sisters, which, for Jesus, transforms even our prayer: coming to an agreement.
Not only when there is a conflict, but also when asking God for some gift.
The Lord says: “If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven”.
This promise suggests that we can have shared desires, shared sorrows and shared hopes, and that through prayer we can grow in unity.
Without faith, each person might feel alone and become suspicious of others, seeing them as strangers and enemies.
By grace, however, we are brothers and sisters who can live in harmony: meeting one another, forgiving one another and listening to one another in the Lord.
Let us ask Mary, who, after the angel’s announcement, went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth to share the joy and the hardship of pregnancy, to teach us, too, the joyful debt of fraternal love.
