St. Francis of Assisi Parish Bagdad issued the following announcement on Sept. 6.

This happened many years ago.  I received a text message from a friend.  The message ran thus:  “I thought we were close friends.  I did not want to open up to you, but I couldn’t keep this to myself anymore.  Rather than keep it to myself, I have decided that I will just spill it out to you.  I heard that you have been spreading something behind my back.  Is it true that you have been spreading the news around that I am cute and lovable?”  I was anxiously reading every word and thinking really hard what I had done wrong.  I thought I was going to get corrected or reprimanded.  To relieve the stress it gave me, I sent it to some of my friends.

Giving and receiving correction is hard.  When I was in my second year of high school in the minor seminary, I got into an altercation with a classmate that led to a fist fight.  My biology teacher asked us to reconcile after a correction and reprimand.  We shook hands and were told to go to the principal or else we couldn’t go back to class.  Speaking from their experiences, the seniors advised us not to go to the principal because our teacher wouldn’t remember it.  We agreed not to report.  We saved ourselves another round of reprimand or maybe we no longer needed further correction on that matter.  The correction and reprimand of our teacher was enough for us.  Enough to bring us to a dialogue.  Enough to make us best friends for life.  I am who I am today because of God’s correction through His Word and through His representatives like my parents, relatives, friends, teachers, seminary and fellow priests and parishioners.

You and I don’t live in a vacuum.  We belong to one family and one community.  This topic reminds me of the book by Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.  He mentioned:  play fair; share everything; don’t hit people; say sorry when you hurt somebody; don’t take things that aren’t yours; live a balance life, etc.  Someone along the way must have corrected and told us those reminders and a few more.  Fraternal correction should not stop after kindergarten.  If I have to grow and mature, I would need to give and receive of what we call fraternal correction.

The readings this Sunday give us answers for why we need to give fraternal correction and the proper motivation or reason that should accompany such intervention.  What do you do when you see somebody doing something wrong?  We can’t just repeat Cain’s words, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  The prophet Ezekiel in the first reading was reminded by God that one of his tasks was as a watchman or sentry.  As a prophet he must make them know the evil they have done -- not out of anger, hatred, spite or revenge -- but out of caring.  We don't want any person to be destroyed, so we point out their fault or sins in order to dissuade him or her from their old ways.

As kids, we didn’t “get” or understand immediately the reason why our parents corrected us.  St. Paul in the second reading says, “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.”  We owe each other love and that should be motivation for fraternal correction.  If one strives to love and do only what is good for one’s brother or sister, one is certainly keeping all the commandments.  The commandments more often prohibit us from doing wrong.  But that is not enough.  When there are disasters such as tornados and hurricanes, we accept responsibility for the care of our neighbor in need.  Most of the time, we limit our care to the physical or material needs.  When it comes to assisting someone in his moral and spiritual needs, do we say, “That is none of my business”?  Silence and refusal to be involved will not be a safe option, but we will actually be held accountable for this attitude as a sin of omission.

Courageous and good words can help, but it is only the grace of God that can change the heart.  Prayer, therefore, plays a big part in conversion.  Now I know why we have many instances in the Gospel where Jesus prayed.  St. Monica’s prayers and tears were not for naught because we have her son St. Augustine.

Do I regret the many times I failed to correct and pray for an erring brother or sister?

Blessings,

Fr. Camilo

Original source can be found here.