St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

Nobody likes to be corrected. It tweaks our ego, and it is often badly done or consists of someone making snide comments or berating us because we’ve done something they don’t like. Fraternal correction can also sting, but it has the good of the corrected person in mind. Today’s readings remind us that correction when done fraternally, it a great act of charity that we should appreciate and practice for the good of others.

In today’s First Reading the Lord reminds Ezekiel, and us, that it is our moral responsibility to warn a brother or sister that they are doing something evil. It’s our duty to inform people of the consequences of their evil actions.  When the Lord first asked Cain about the murder of Abel, he phrased it in a way that tried to help Cain realize he was responsible for his brother: “Where is Abel your brother?”  Cain responded, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).  We are all our brother’s keeper.  We live in a world that teaches us to mind our own business, but that doesn’t include someone who is drowning, at the mercy of criminals, or committing a crime themselves.

Our society is full of initiatives to help others turn from evil: from programs for “at risk” youth to drug rehab to penitentiaries, but none of them has the same power as a brother or sister who genuinely cares and takes an interest in someone on the wrong path. The Lord today is telling Ezekiel today, and us, to inform consciences out of charity, not to force them onto the right path.  If we love someone, we cannot leave them in ignorance about the evil they’re doing.

In today’s Second Reading St. Paul reminds us that every just law is built on love, and if we focus on loving and teaching others to love everything else will fall into place.  Society has many laws and measures today that are built on justice, but not always enforced with love.  Deeper than the labels of “suspect,” “victim,” “criminal,” there is only one label that matters: “brother.”  St. Paul simply repeats what Our Lord himself answered when the scribe asked him what was the greatest commandment regarding each other: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (see Mark 12:31). Fraternal correction is not returning evil for evil, no matter what our brother has done.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that before entering into litigation with someone who has wronged us we should try simple fraternal correction. Our society today tends to try and resolve disputes through rules and regulations, lawyers and courts, fines and penalties.  We often try from the beginning to get justice from someone through someone else, when we know that nobody reacts well to being pressured into doing something.

We should always try to start by settling a dispute fraternally: one on one, in frank but charitable dialogue.  We should not only seek our good, but the good of the person who has afflicted us, and we won’t completely understand their motives if we don’t speak to them. There are many small disagreements that can be resolved this way and to everyone’s satisfaction. If an attempt at fraternal correction fails it is not a lack of charity to bring witnesses in and, if necessary the Church (authorities), to help both parties see the truth and adhere to it.     Justice is sought, but the good of both parties as well. If the guilty party does not listen to all the facts and an authoritative judgment, then the guilty party has been shown to not be in communion with those he or she has afflicted, and that has to be acknowledged, sometimes publicly. When the Church formally declares someone to be excommunicated or under interdict it is taking this step for the good of the unrepentant party.

King Zedekiah ruled over the kingdom of Judah in the time of the prophet Jeremiah, a time when the kingdom was threatened by the Chaldeans. The king and his advisors put their hope in the Egyptians helping them against the Chaldeans, and their hope was in vain, as the Lord had instructed Jeremiah to warn them.     The Lord told them through Jeremiah that they should surrender to the Chaldeans instead and all would turn out.  Jeremiah was imprisoned for contradicting the regime, and King Zedekiah secretly summoned him to find the Lord’s will. Jeremiah told him he should surrender to the Chaldeans to save his life, his house’s, and Jerusalem’s.

Zedekiah was too afraid of how the Jews who’d already defected to Chaldea would treat him and didn’t heed Jeremiah or the Lord.     Jerusalem was destroyed, Zedekiah was captured, saw his sons slain before his eyes, along with the nobles of Judah, and then was blinded and taken captive into Babylon.

Some people may be eager to go out and start correcting, but there is a fine line between judging and correcting.    Our Lord taught us, take care of the beam in your eye before you help your brother with the splinter in his (see Matthew 7:3-5). If we’re going to inform other peoples’ consciences, we need to make sure to form our own. Reading Part III of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a good way to deal with the beam in your eye so that you can better help your brother with removing the splinter from his.

The best remedy to being judgmental is to remember that we are all sinners in need of grace and guidance. As we pray every Sunday, “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault…”     With a healthy dose of humility and self-knowledge, you’ll be ready to help your brother as a brother.