Author: Santuario de San Antonio Parish

There is a story about St. Francis and a man who approached him about the issue of correcting erring and sinning brothers and sisters. The man said, “Bro Francis, I am in a quandary. In the Bible, it says we should rebuke sinners, but I see people sinning all the time. I don’t feel like I should go around rebuking everybody.”

St. Francis responded, “What you must do is live in such a way that your life rebukes the sinner. How you act will call others to repentance.”

The Gospel passage today is about fraternal correction as a Christian duty. While the shining example of a Christian is always the best way to lead others to God and to the right paths, this Gospel text also gives us a concrete manner of correcting erring brothers and sisters.

In general, what the four gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John give us is a vision of the Kingdom of God. They give us inspirations, stories and directions about the pursuit of the Gospel and Kingdom values as exemplified by Jesus himself. However, seldom do they give us step-by-step procedures in addressing issues and problems in Christian life. But our Gospel passage today does precisely this: It gives us concrete steps to take with regards correcting erring brothers and sisters.

Fraternal correction is a deep-seated tradition that can be found in the life and ministry of Jesus and in the Gospels. Jesus Himself corrected and rebuked His disciples on certain occasions. Starting with the example and teachings of Jesus, the Church has taken fraternal correction not only as a duty of Christian justice but as a duty of Christian love.

St Ambrose of Milan had a great spiritual and moral influence on St. Augustine and his conversion. He must have practiced fraternal correction on St. Augustine for love of him. He testified to the importance of fraternal correction when he said: “If you discover some defect in a friend, correct him privately (…) For corrections do more good and are more profitable than friendship that keeps silent. If the friend is offended, correct him just the same, firmly and without fear, even though the correction tastes bitter to him. It is written in the Book of Proverbs that wounds from a true friend are preferable to kisses from flatterers (Prov. 27:6).”

St Augustine, for his part, must have recognized the value of fraternal correction that helped him in his own conversion process. Thus, he warned against the grave fault of omitting fraternal correction to one’s neighbor. He said, “You do worse by keeping silent than he does by sinning.”

In the Second Reading, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of his divine appointment from the Lord to warn the people of Israel of their wicked ways and their need to change to avoid perishing (Ezek. 33:7-9). Correcting others lovingly and courageously is a divine imperative that can spell damnation or salvation.

St. Augustine emphasized that the only valid Christian motivation for fraternal correction is love, not revenge. He said: “We must correct out of love, not out of a desire to hurt, but with the loving intention of helping the person’s amendment. If we act like that, we will be fulfilling the commandment very well – ‘If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.’ Why do you correct him? Because you are upset that he has offended you? God forbid. If you do it out of self-love, your action is worthless. If it is love that moves you, you are acting excellently.” Further, St. Augustine said, “You have to forget the hurt you have received, not the wound of your brother.”

Pope Benedict XVI said likewise: “This approach is called fraternal correction: it is not a reaction to injury suffered, but is moved by love for one’s brother.”

That love must be the sole motive for fraternal correction is given credence by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans (Second Reading). St. Paul writes: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8). In this line, to correct another person out of love is a fulfillment of the law.

I think we all agree that there is a need to fraternally correct erring brothers and sisters and we do this for their good and the good of the community and those affected by the wrongdoings and sins of others. But the big question is: How do we do fraternal correction?

St. Augustine wrestled with the issue of whether to correct sinners and heretics, and how to do so. He said: “It is a deep and difficult matter to estimate what each one can endure… And I doubt that many have become better because of impending punishment…. If you punish people, you may ruin them. If you leave them unpunished, you may ruin others. I admit that I make mistakes… …” (Letter 95.3).

The Gospel today clearly gives us practical steps for confronting and correcting an erring or sinning brother or sister.

First, we need to do one-on-one personal dialogue. We are to meet individually with an erring brother or sister and charitably and humbly point out the offense. If the brother or sister listens and repents, the matter is resolved.

Second, if one-on-one personal dialogue is unsuccessful, then we resort to the mediation of other well-meaning brothers and sisters. The Gospel says that we take with us one or two other members, perhaps of the family or the community. They are not there to condemn the erring brother or sister but to mediate, to help us convince the person and to serve as witnesses to the dialogue. Charitably and humbly and guided by the grace of the Lord, the smaller group is to make the needed fraternal correction.

Third, if the person still refuses to listen and change his behavior, then the matter is brought to a family and community dialogue or meeting. This gathering in love and humility and in the presence of the Lord is to confront the person and encourage him or her to repent.
Lastly, if all attempts still fail and the person does not listen and change and repent, the Gospel says that we should treat him as we should a Gentile or a tax collector.”

The first three steps might be easier to understand and accept. But how do we understand the last recourse of treating another as a Gentile or a tax collector when all other steps fail? Does it mean that we now cut our relationship with the person or dismiss and expel him or her from our family or community and treat him or her as a stranger?

The answers to these difficult questions lie in our understanding of the Gentiles and the tax collectors and how we should deal with them. The Jews abhorred them and disdained any contact with them. In contrast, Jesus reached out to them and pursued them. He showed to them the boundless and welcoming love of the Father.

At times, we can get fed up and we can reach dead-ends in our relationships with others, especially if they continue to be unrepentant and recalcitrant in their behaviors. We can even reach the point where we do no want to talk to them and we decide to have nothing to do with them. We decide to avoid interactions because it can be destructive for us and other concerned parties. Perhaps, there will even be times when we just have to part ways or to impose sanctions on others.

Still, the Christian attitude is not to completely close our hearts to them and to the grace of God. There is hope as long as the person is alive. The change may not take place now but it can take place some other time when the person finally accepts the grace of God in his heart. Even if we may have to part ways, we must forgive and not hold grudges. We must forgive by the grace of God, at least for our good if not for the good of the other party. What we cannot change or control, we must completely entrust to the merciful grace of God.

The injunctions of Jesus on binding and gathering in prayer must be seen in this direction. If all human efforts and even Christian steps fail, we are to continue to bind the offending brother and sister in the love and mercy of God. We must continue to resolve to pray for him, individually and as community. At times, there is nothing more humanly possible things that we can do except to pray for the person.

The Gospel passage today on fraternal correction, to be properly understood according to the mind and heart of Christ, must be taken with the other Gospel passages. Jesus in other Gospel passages talks about unlimited forgiveness of other people, about praying for and continuously doing good for our enemies.

The task of Christian fraternal correction is not easy. It is only possible with the grace of God and with a new vision of the Kingdom of God. It can only be embraced by those who decide to receive and live by the values of the Kingdom of God, values that are counter-cultural and do no take the prevalent attitudes ad practices as the norms. A true Christian, even in the midst of persecution and death, does not resort to an eye-to-an-eye or to a tooth-for-a-tooth principle. Evil, for a Christian disciple, can only be defeated with good.

We end with Fr. Herbert Smith, SJ’s “A Dozen Guidelines for Brotherly Correction.” The Guidelines say:

1. Unless you are a model correction taker, be slow to give it.
2. Correct like a friend and fellow sinner, not like an enemy.
3. Knowing how you resent unjust correction, never inflict it.
4. Harping on past faults is not correction but condemnation.
5. Know that love wins over better than an army of accusations.
6. Get help to correct when it is needed.
7. Frame the correction so it will heal and not wound further.
8. Decide first whether the person needs correction or help.
9. Correct infrequently and not only the greater failings.
10. Correction hurts, so don’t correct with a sledgehammer.
11. Think how prayerfully Mary would correct, and imitate her.
12. Put yourself in the culprit’s shoes and think about it. You may end up congratulating him for not being worse.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections.

D. T. Forsythe said, “You do not understand Christ unless you understand the cross.”

While it is so true, the reverse is also true. We cannot understand the cross unless we understand Christ. Perhaps, we can even add that we cannot understand and carry our crosses without Christ in and with us.

Roy B. Zuck tells an interesting story about a boy and the role of the cross in our lives. One day, a boy got lost. A police officer asked him the name of the street on which he lived. The police officer mentioned the names of streets but the list did not include the boy’s street. Then the officer pointed at a tall steeple with a cross and asked the lost boy, “Do you live anywhere near there?” The boy responded, “Yes. Take me to the cross. I can find my way from there.”

For us Christians, the cross of Christ is our way to salvation because it is Christ’s way to fulfill God’s will for our redemption. The cross of Christ has brought us back to the home of our heavenly Father.

In his confession of faith in Jesus as the “Christ, the Son of the living God,” Peter had one of his shining moments, if not the most shining moment, of his life. He gave the right answer to Jesus’ question, “But who do you say that I am?” This answer was revealed to him by the heavenly Father and not by “flesh and blood.”

The Gospel passage today follows Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus. Yet Peter did not fully comprehend the full impact of his act of faith. He continued to see Jesus as the Christ from the human perspective, not from God’s. He was governed by the prevalent understanding of the Messiah as earthly and political.

It was a case of giving the right answer but with a wrong understanding of the said answer. Peter did not know fully well its implications. He needed to be rebuked to continue learning and changing his perspective on what a true Messiah was all about.

In the Gospel, we see Jesus predicting his own suffering, death and resurrection. He also discussed the need for the disciples to follow Him in this path to glory and salvation of all – through suffering and death.

Jesus’ prediction did not conform to the Messianic expectations of the people, which Peter and the other disciples presumably shared. Peter’s reaction against Jesus’ prediction was not just a matter of personal concern for the fate and safety of Jesus. It was a matter of expectations being crushed by the prediction of Jesus. It was a case of refusing to embrace the implications of changed expectations, the result of a new revelation of Jesus about his Messiahship.

How could a suffering Messiah liberate the people of Israel under the oppressive reign of the foreign Roman power? The Messiah needed to be powerful and mighty to do this. Jesus’ prediction was like cold water thrown upon the people’s high hopes for a political and earthly liberator.

Jesus’ prediction necessitates not only a change in the way the disciples saw Jesus as the Awaited Messiah but also in the way they would share in His Messianic role. They were anticipating to share in His expected earthly power and prestige and not in His suffering and failure. Jesus told them that they must also be willing to embrace their crosses in imitation of the Lord.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, says that Peter was actually trying to talk Jesus out of the cross as the path to resurrection and glory. Peter said, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He was convincing Jesus to rebuff the plan that the Father had laid out for Him. He wanted Jesus to take another path that was more in accord to earthly and human judgments and ways.

If in the confession incident, Peter was commended by Jesus, this time he was rebuked by Jesus. In fact, Peter was not only reprimanded; he was called Satan for acting like Satan in the way he was obstructing the fulfillment of God’s plan.

Satan’s role, in the life of Jesus and in the life of every person, is always to serve as an obstacle in the fulfillment of God’s will.

According to St. Augustine, Jesus was reminded of Satan’s attempts to talk him out of the path of the cross in His temptations in the desert. Now, Satan was acting again in the person of Peter, the disciple who had paradoxically just confessed his faith in Him.

In His temptations in the desert, Jesus told Satan, “Be gone, Satan.” This time, Jesus had to tell Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter must not take the role of Satan by being a hindrance to Jesus’ accomplishment of Father’s will. Instead, he must be a true disciple who follows Jesus on the path of the cross. And Peter could only do this by thinking “not as human beings do but as God does.” He had to see with the eyes of God and of true faith in God, not according to his pre-established notions about the Messianic role of Jesus and the values of human beings and of the world.

Once Peter saw things according to God’s plan and eyes, he and the other disciples would consequently realize that the cross was part and parcel of the discipleship of Jesus. Just as Jesus had to suffer and die, the disciples would also be ready to embrace the same possibility and fate for them.

Cardinal Dolan further says that Jesus could never be accused of false advertisement in inviting disciples to follow him. Indeed, Jesus was and is always honest, bold and realistic. Jesus said in the Gospel today, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” No false hopes, no false expectations, no false promises. A disciple must be ready for the cross just as Jesus embraced the cross in obedience to His Father’s will.

According to historical accounts, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in his attempts to mobilize and galvanize the British citizenry during the First World War, said, “All I promise you is blood, sweat and tears.” Indeed, no victory and triumph for the British people in the midst of difficulties without blood, sweat and tears.

Jesus said the same thing to His disciples and He is saying this to us now: “No cross, no resurrection; no suffering, no victory; no pain, no glory.” Indeed, there is no Christianity, no discipleship, without the cross of Christ.

But Jesus was not only realistic, true and bold; He was also credible. He did not ask what He Himself had not embraced or was not willing to embrace. He could demand the cross for and from His disciples because the cross was part of His own life and salvific mission. Jesus truly led by example. The genuine Messiah who was Jesus was characterized by the carrying of the cross as a sign of love and a path to victory and salvation.

We can understand why Satan, who was acting in Peter, was talking Jesus out of the cross. Satan is always afraid of genuine expressions of boundless and sacrificing love. He is always convincing people away from paths that lead to holiness, salvation and the will of God. Satan is a liar and deceiver par excellence.

Satan always tries to delude and misguide us with easy, suffering-free lives, ways and paths that do not lead to salvation and to the true designs and will of God. These maybe in the forms of easy money, power and prestige and quick fixes at the expense of one’s soul, morality and spirituality and the good of the majority.

The cross of Christ is an inescapable part of Christian life and any attempts from whatever sources to dissuade us from this fact are lies. In fact, they are satanic, if we are to use the rebuke of Jesus in the Gospel.

While Satan is always convincing us that the cross is a sign of failure and weakness, Jesus keeps on reminding us that it is a sign of love, victory and salvation. In a world characterized by hedonism, convenience and fast results, people can shun away from the cross that is redemptive.

The Gospel tells us that the cross of Christ remains the primary symbol of Christianity. We say it is the suffering Christ nailed on the cross for our salvation, because suffering without love can be dehumanizing and destructive. Suffering can only be redemptive when love and Christ are present.

Mahatma Gandhi was discussing with some Christian missionaries about Christianity. He asked, “What hymn would you suggest to me which summarizes what you believe in?” The Christian missionaries consulted one another and then said, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

Isaac Watts wrote the said song in 1707. The lyrics of the song state:

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections>>>>