A long time ago, Cain, in response to God's question about the whereabouts of his brother Abel, answered with another question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" That is what today's readings are about. As Christians we essentially belong to a community and in that community we are responsible for each other and we are all responsible for the Christian quality of that community. What each one does is not just my own business. When we do good, all benefit; when one does wrong, all suffer. God is to be found within the community and its members. "Where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them". We love God in and through the community. When one of us does an unloving act, the community is hurt and a healing and reconciling process has to be initiated. It cannot simply be ignored. This even means that, if someone insists on acting in a non-Christian way, the community may have to - at least temporarily - separate from that person. And what the community in prayer decides, God ratifies. "Whatever you bind on earth, shall be considered bound in heaven [i.e. by God]."

Let me ask myself today: what role do I play in my Christian community? Am I a builder or a splitter? What healing work do I do?