If someone wrongs you, what do you do?

If someone wrongs you, what do you do?
Do you talk to them?
Do you sulk?
Do you spend time plotting your revenge?
What do you do?

I remember one mentor of mine passing on some advice.  He told me that whenever you are up late some night because of something someone said, or did, to you during the day- remember- that they are sleeping like a baby.

That is true, for many reasons, one of which may be the simple fact that they didn't know or realize what happened to you on account of their words or actions.  Another is that they don't care, or anywhere in between.

Read the words of Jesus in the Gospel for Sunday (Matthew 18: 15-20).

Notice the direction of energy and expectation, toward the other.
WHAT!?!? They should come crawling back and apologize!

I remind you of the advice I mentioned above.

Besides, what did Jesus do?  Did he sin against us?
No, but he came to us.  He came to us.

Jesus knows it is hard, and often we will need friends and support to see it through.
In fact, living in community is hard.  Think about it, just living with a family is hard.
There are bound to be disagreements and misunderstandings.
And it can be so hard to deal with one another in love.

So we need forgiveness, compassion, peace, love, hope...   we need Jesus.
"For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."
THANK GOD!

((A pastoral comment about the Gospel. There are situations that going back to someone who "wronged you"- like an abuser or bully of any kind- is not a smart thing to do, especially alone.  This is not a call for you to further risk great harm to yourself.  I simply mention this as this passage has been used against victims in the past.))