|
|
|
1. Nobody can escape being corrected. When we were growing up as babies, our parents corrected us when we did something we are not supposed to do. When we were going to school as students, our teachers corrected us when we made a mistake in our exams. When we were going to work, our bosses corrected us when we did not do our job assignment well. When we break a traffic law, the traffic police come to correct us. It is a fact of life that we are being corrected everyday.
2. Nobody likes to be corrected. When we are corrected it is quite unusual to feel happy about it. Sometimes we feel uneasy, irritated and sometimes we say things like, “Who is he/she to tell me that I am wrong?” We feel resentful and angry especially when it comes from someone you least expected, for example our children, our employees, or in my case, parishioners.
3. We need correction. No matter how painful, humbling, shameful correction is for us, we need it. We needed our parents to correct us. We needed our teachers to correct us. We needed our friends to correct us. Occasionally we needed the traffic police to correct us.
In the first reading, God made Ezekiel a watchman for the house of Israel, a prophet, someone who speaks to warn the wicked to turn from his way. That was his responsibility – and if he did not carry it out, then he is to be blamed. As Christians we have a great responsibility to speak out against the evil of our time. We cannot just sit back and say, “It is none of my business”. When it does become our business, it would have been too late. - Internet and Pornography - Sex outside of Marriage, Chastity, Purity - Abortion, Contraception
4. Correction is not Condemning In the second reading, St. Paul writes, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
Our motivation behind correcting is Not self preservation, self fulfillment, self interest, But LOVE of Neighbor. We have an obligation to speak the truth but to speak without judging. Someone said that speaking the truth is something like watering plants. If you water them too strongly, it will destroy the plant. Therefore we need to correct with LOVE – kind, patient, not jealous or boastful, not arrogant or rude, not insisting on its way, not irritable or resentful, does not at wrong, but rejoices in the right…Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor. 13)
5. We need a Christ-Centered Correction God is a God who corrects us. God is a Father who teaches his children.
"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Go and Tell – Making the first step! Between you and him Alone – Don’t spread gossips!
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. …the evidence of two or three witness - Correction is a responsibility of the whole community. Sin not only hurts the person but it also hurts the community. So, sometimes the community is called for in order to correct.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. …tell it to the church - The Church exists as a servant of the Gospel message. The teaching of Christ is the Measure in which the Church corrects. The Church is both a human and divine institution. The Holy Spirit works through the Church – to maintain the integrity of the teachings of Christ and to speak out against false teachings.
Jesus says, “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”.
With great power, comes great responsibility. The Church has the responsibility to ensure that the voice of Christ is still heard throughout the ages. The greatest example is John Paul II who faithfully spoke out against Communism, against the Culture of Death – even though it was not a politically correct thing to do. But he did it. Another example is Joseph Ratzinger our current Pope, Benedict XVI who as the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith. Since 1981, he has been faithfully defending the doctrines and teachings of Christ against Relativism.
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Correction is Impossible without Prayer – Private Prayer as well as Communal Prayer. Prayer directs our attention not to ourselves but towards God. Through prayer, we center our correction on love of Christ and love of neighbor. We need to prayer before, during and after we correct someone of their faults. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is made available for us so that God can correct us. We need to be corrected by God before we begin correcting others.
|
