Do We Have the Power to “Bind and to Loose”?

Today’s reflection is from Brian Flanagan (he/him), who holds the John Cardinal Cody Chair of Catholic Theology at Loyola University Chicago. He is a Senior Fellow at New Ways Ministry, and the Past President of the College Theology. His most recent book is “Stumbling in Holiness: Sin and Sanctity in the Church.” 

The liturgical readings for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found by clicking here.

Today’s gospel passage is an exciting one for a theologian like me who studies the church. It’s one of only two places in the gospels,where Jesus uses the word “ekklesia,” meaning “church” or “assembly.” And if you’re feeling some déjà vu, Jesus used the same word, “ekklesia”  in the gospel passage from two Sunday ago  ago, when he responded to Simon Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church (ekklesia).” That  phrase is spelled out in letters 6.5 feet high in Latin around the base of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 

A second common element connects these two stories: “to bind and to loose.” Jesus gave that power to Peter in the passage two weeks ago, and in today’s reading, he gives the same power to all of his disciples. In fact, he uses the exact same words: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 

What might all this binding and loosening mean? And what might it mean particularly for LGBTQ+ Catholics?

There’s a lot of scholarly discussion about the meaning of “binding” and “loosing” in these passages. In today’sT passage, embedded in the disciples’ discussion of how to handle conflict and disagreement in the church, binding and loosing seems to refer primarily to the judgment of who is welcome in the church – and who isn’t. I have three observations about our text that suggest how it may be good news for LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families and friends.

First, today’s Gospel expands our idea of who has authority in our church. Given how often ecclesial authority has used its powers to bind and to loose as a weapon against LGBTQ+ Catholics, remember that in this passage Jesus gives that authority to all of his disciples – “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” 

That doesn’t mean that the particular authority given to Peter and to our leaders isn’t important, but it does mean that their roles aren’t exhaustive of the power Christ intended for his church. Today’s reading might remind us to think of “the church” as using “we/us” pronouns rather than “they/them” pronouns, and live into the commission Jesus gives all of us as disciples.

Second, as we take up that authority we need to ask  how we might loosen the bonds of our fellow LGBTQ+ folks and even of our fellow Catholics who disagree with us. First, and most importantly, we can work to  sett free LGBTQ+ folks who feel trapped in shame or fear of their own identity, who are caught up in the lies that they don’t matter or, worse, that God doesn’t love them just for who they are. Every time we authentically welcome them as church, as the “two or three gathered in Christ’s name,” we exercise the authority Jesus gave us to set free those in bondage. 

Rather than doing so in an “us-versus-them” mentality, gay theologian James Alison has repeatedly reminded us that the call to unbind sometimes include the call to free our opponents or critics in the church, including some church leaders who have unintentionally tied themselves up in systems and structures of their own making. Helping to unbind our siblings in Christ for whom LGBTQ+ folks are a threat or an enemy  is also a part of exercising the authority Christ has given us. 

Third, while it’s relatively easy to talk about loosening the bonds that keep people in fear or subjugate and marginalize them, what about the other half of Jesus’ commission: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”? Why would we want to bind anyone or anything? 

Examining another sense of the terms “bind” and “loose” comes in handy here. When the gospels show Jesus exorcizing a demon, he is often depicted as both “unbinding” the affected individual and “binding” the demonic forces, restricting their ability to continue to harm. We should  think of binding less as directed at any particular person or group, and more as preventing  further harm by resisting the forces that attempt to prevent the full flourishing of LGBTQ+ people. 

To build up  communities of mutual respect sometimes requires restricting actions and words that would undermine that welcome. When someone refuses to listen even to the ekklesia, Jesus teaches us today to “treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector” – and we all know Jesus doesn’t mean abandoning those lost sheep, but redoubling our efforts to welcome them back into the fold. 

In short, Jesus calls all of us today to exercise the authority that he pre-eminently gave to Peter – to set captives free, to seek and save the lost, to protect the vulnerable from harm and to bind the forces that would cause that harm. Most importantly, we are warned not to do this on our own, but “where two or three are gathered together in my name,” the places in which Christ promised that he’d be working through us. And for LGBTQ+ folks and for the whole world, that is very good news. 

—Brian Flanagan, Ph.D., September 6, 2026