In today's
first reading, the Lord tells the prophet Ezekiel that he is the watchman for
the house of Israel. Ezekiel must warn
others when they sin; otherwise he will be held responsible for their sin. Once he warns someone, Ezekiel will not be
held responsible for any sin they might commit and he will save himself.
Who are our
watchmen today? Most people would
probably say that our religious leaders, our bishops, priests, and even our
deacons are watchmen. As clergy, we
clearly are responsible for warning others when they are sinning.
But, all of
us, as Christians, as followers of Christ, are watchmen. We are all responsible for warning others
about their sinful behavior. This is not
a duty to be taken lightly as we hear in the first reading. If we are negligent in this duty, we can be
held responsible for someone's spiritual death.
It is
difficult to reconcile this responsibility with today's attitude toward sin and
truth. If I were to tell someone that it
can be a sin for him to miss mass on Sunday, he would probably say to me that he
doesn't believe this and that I should keep my opinions to myself. He might also comment that I am being
intolerant of him and am judging him.
Reminding someone that what they are
doing is not right is never easy. When
we do this, we might be successful in getting someone to change or we might be
told to get lost. We all should shudder
when we read today’s passage from Ezekiel where God tells Ezekiel “if you do not
speak to the wicked person about their wickedness, I will hold you responsible
for the consequences of his or her wrongdoing.”
We all may have a lot to answer for because of things that we didn’t say
or do.
Love should be the motivation behind
any form of fraternal correction. Paul
tells us today: “owe nothing to anyone except to love one another.” We shouldn’t go around finding fault with
people because we enjoy it. We should
do it because we love them and we hate to see them doing things that will cause
themselves harm, either spiritually or physically.
Often our words of wisdom or
encouragement, even if offered in love, fall on deaf ears. In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us one more
way to help our brother or sister who is straying from the path of
righteousness. Jesus encourages prayer
for the person. As a matter of fact,
even before we dare offer advice or criticism to another, we should pray for
the right words and then if we are told to mind our own business, we should
keep on praying for them. St James
summarized our efforts in this area when he said: “whoever brings back a sinner
from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a
multitude of sins.”
There is no human power greater than
truth spoken in love, but this power does not protect us from retaliation. When Pilate asked Jesus , "are you a
king?" Jesus answered, "You
say that I am a king. For this I was
born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to
my voice.". Then Pilate promptly ordered
Jesus to be crucified.
Jesus doesn't promise we won't suffer
for speaking the truth. But he says,
"If you seek to save your life on this earth, you will lose it. How do you profit if you gain the whole world
and lose your own soul." We are not
on earth to save our lives- or our jobs or our relationships with others if we
have to suppress the truth to keep them.
Rather we are here to testify to the truth. The person we will be for all eternity will
be determined by how well we do that.
We all need to help each other on our
spiritual journey, to be watchmen for one another. At St Francis, there are groups of spirit-filled
men and women who meet regularly- including bible studies, faith sharing, marriage encounter and CRHP. As we get to know each other and to know
our joys and sorrows, our strengths and weaknesses, it is a great opportunity
to share our struggles with each other and to provide some assistance, some
fraternal correction, to each other. If
you are not already a member of one of these groups, I would encourage you to
join one. We all can learn from each
other's successes and failures.
