Fraternal Correction: Seek The Good Of Others

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara

Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, September 6, 2020

The theme of today’s Gospel is fraternal correction, which is the act and the art of constructive criticism of our brothers and sisters. Now, our society prides itself as a non-judgmental society. The worst thing anyone can be is to be judgmental of the behaviors of others, to criticize them for their wrong doings. Deep in our cultural DNA is the question: “Who are you to tell me what to do?” But at the same time we are a hyper-critical society. We critique each other for our political views, religious views, the way we look, the way we dress, the way we speak, the way we worship etc. Look at social media, it is mostly about criticizing others. You can post the most wonderful, beautiful and profound statement even from the Bible, and some people will still criticize you and the comment. Some of the most destructive criticisms you can imagine are littered on social media. On one hand we declare, don’t judge, be non-judgmental but on the other hand we are judging all the time. But what does the Bible have to say about this? What is the Bible’s view about being non-judgmental and being hyper-critical? 

The modern liberal viewpoint is to eschew judgment: be non-judgmental. But the Bible encourages us to engage in fraternal correction of each other. The first reading taken from prophet Ezekiel says, “You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.” With those words, the Lord addresses a prophet. Is the Lord speaking to prophet Ezekiel alone? No! He is equally speaking to you and me. To every baptized persons, we are prophets. By the virtue of our baptism, we are priests, prophets, kings. So, the Lord is not speaking to Ezekiel alone or people like Ezekiel. He is speaking to you, me and every baptized person. The Lord has appointed you the watchman for the house of Israel, and according to St. Paul, we are the new Israel. However before you can be a good and effective prophet, you have to first know the will of God, the teaching of the Lord, and what the Lord desires. 

What we read from prophet Ezekiel is opposed to the modern liberal notion of “live and let’s live.” It is against the viewpoint that teaches and encourages a non-judgmental approach. It is a pretty direct command to confront in love those who are violating the commands of God. And the ground for this command is the divine law. When it comes to moral life, there is a clear objective norm of morality. There are lots of voices out there that insist that morality is a matter of convention: I have my values and you have your values, that’s why I don’t judge you and you should not judge me as well. But the Bible does not teach and encourage relativism and subjectivism and indifferentism. The Bible holds objectivity to moral value because moral value is grounded in the law of God which in turn is grounded in the very being and nature of God. It is not based on your private opinion and my private opinion.

Furthermore, we are not simply individuals in the biblical view of things. Israel saw itself in a very cooperate sense: the people of Israel. Then in the New Testament, St. Paul intensifies this picture with his view of the Church as the body, that comes up in the Catholic tradition in this idea of the Church as the mystical body of Christ. Christ is the head and we are the members of that body. What this means is that none of us can talk about “my living out my private spiritual life.” Each of us is part of this great organism of the Church. If a member is living an awful spiritual life, it is not their problem, but our problem. A healthy organ in the body cannot say to an infected organ in the body, “that is for you to worry about,” because in time it is going to affect the entire body. So, in spiritual order, we are on for each other. We cannot retreat to private subjectivism of “live and let’s live.” It is unbiblical! So, should we engage in fraternal correction? The answer is YES! That’s what prophet Ezekiel tells us today. But how should we fraternally correction the erring ones among us? In today’s Gospel (Mt. 18:15-20), Jesus lays out the steps to fraternal correction. He says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.” One unfortunate instinct that we sinners have in common is that when we are wronged, the last person we speak to is the one that wronged us. We talk about our injury to everybody else, and complain about it except our offender. Some of us go to social media and complain about the injustice done to us but never to the one who wronged us. Is this easy to do? YES! But that’s not what the Lord said. He enjoins us to go and tell our brother or sister who sins against us— just between you and him or her alone. This is the first step, and how difficult it is to do it. I myself sometimes resist this first step, but it is a very constructive step to avoid telling the world about what has happened, rather to meet with the person in love. Telling the world does not accomplish anything glorious other than to attack the sinner and to undermine the person’s reputation. Go to him alone, the Lord says. Out of love and concern, not broadcasting it to the world, and see if you can find a resolution. Like I said before, this is quite hard, but when we do this, in many cases, we do make significant progress. We do address the problem positively and constructively when we go to the individual and point out what the individual had done or said that hurt really hurt us. In many cases, the individual acknowledges it and apologizes. With this, you win your brother or sister over; and you don’t advertise the problem to the whole world. What a beautiful step the Lord lays out for us. So, when you are offended— we are going to offend each other; we are all sinners living in the world of sinners, so we are going to offend each other. However, when you are offended, go to him or her alone and share the difficulty.

But what if our outreach approach to the person who offended us did not work out well? To be honest with you, there are times when you will approach an offender and complains to him or her what they had done to you, and they simply write you off. Some might even tell you, “Grow up!” Some may turn around and say, “Oh no, I did nothing wrong. It is your fault. You caused it. You got what you deserved.” What do you do? Go to the internet and complain about it to everyone? NO! What does the Lord say? He says, “If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” Remember, it is one or two others into the conversation, not the whole world. Now, suppose the intervention of one or two others did not pan out well? The person stands up and tells you and the small invited group, “You are all crazy;” “You have no right to tell me how to live my life.” Do you now rush to the social media to complain and lash out? Absolutely no! The Lord says, “If he refuses to listen them, tell the church.” The church here does not you publish the incident in the parish website or on the bulletin. It does not mean standing behind the pulpit and announcing it to the whole church. It does not mean starting a gossip in the church about the person— you tell a few folks in church with the hope that they will tell others, and in a short period of time, the story has spread around in the church. The ecclesia here is about a small group of people in the church. It could be the person’s mentors or sponsors during baptism or marriage. It could be the leader of a group in the church that the person belongs to. I often suggest to people to speak to their priests not because only priests can resolve conflicts but because of the pastoral authority that priests have. Any priest who knows what he is doing will not inordinately take side. He will see that he stands in the middle and help to resolve the conflicts brought to him. Even if the offender is his brother or best friend, he will not take his side. His role is that of a a healer and reconciler. So, after bringing in one or two persons to resolve the issue and your brother or sister is refusing to listen, speak to the priest about it. He represents the church in the assembly. 

In the social teaching of the church, this approach of resolving issues locally rather than make a federal case out of it is called the principle of subsidiarity. This principle says that in the adjudication of difficulties (that is in political and economic order) always have a prejudice for the most local solution. Begin local, begin as small as you can. It is only when a problem cannot be adjudicated at the local level that you move to the next level. But do not go from the local community to the pope. Go step by step and always have a prejudice for a local solution. This gospel is a brilliant example of subsidiarity at interpersonal level. Jesus says go talk to the person. If that does not work, go the next highest level of bringing in two or three witnesses. If that does not work, then go to the church. This approach is indisputably good. 

Now, suppose the person refuses to listen even to the church, what do you do? Write an article on social media about it? Again NO! To that person, Jesus says, “treat him as you would a Gentile or a text collector.” What does this mean? Dismiss the person and move on with no hope of making contact with him or her? NO! This is not the  time to say, “I am through with you, we are done!” How did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors? Jesus always engage in the outreach to those who are on the margins. To treat the person as you would a Gentile or tax collector is to never give up on them. If you have followed this principle, these steps and it still didn’t work, never give up. Keep reaching out. Keep trying. Don’t just wait until they crawl to you. Keep crawling to them. It’s important to consider how today’s Gospel ends. It ends with the motif of prayer: “…where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” When it comes to fraternal correction, pray. Pray for that sister Gentile; pray for that brother tax-collector. You can invite two or three people from the ecclesia and pray for them. The Lord will be in your midst.