“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;”
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. The application of the anger prohibition to worship: unreconciled relationships cannot be suspended while performing religious duties. The if you are offering your gift at the altar puts the worshipper in the most sacred moment of the religious calendar — offering at the Temple — and interrupts it with the memory of an unresolved conflict. The prioritization of reconciliation over religious duty communicates the deeper logic of the kingdom: God is not honored by the worship of those who harbor anger or have wronged others without making it right. 1 Peter 3:7 warns that fractured marriage relationships will hinder prayer — the connection between human relationship and divine encounter runs through the whole New Testament.
Church Fathers on Matthew 5:23
If it be not lawful to be angry with a brother, or to say to him Racha, or Thou fool, much less is it lawful to keep in the memory any thing which might convert anger into hate.
It is not, If thou hast ought against thy brother; but 'If thy brother has ought against thee,' that the necessity of reconciliation may be more imperative.
But if it is he that hath done you the wrong, and yet you be the first to seek reconciliation, you shall have a great reward.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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