Am I my brother’s keeper?

Homily for 23^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2014

Ezek 33:7-9 • Rom 13:8-10 • Matthew 18:15-20

Introduction

“Am I my brother’s keeper?”  This is the answer that Cain gave to the Lord, when he asked him where his brother Abel was.  With this response Cain denied responsibility for his brother.

That is why today, we also say: “Am I my brother’s keeper,” when we want to wash our hands off helping others, not just with their physical needs, but also with their spiritual needs.

Scripture and Theology

And yet in today’s readings, the Lord wants us to be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper, in matters concerning sin.

The Lord tells Ezekiel: “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.”

·        And then he goes on to tell Ezekiel, that if Ezekiel does not speak to the wicked man about his wicked ways, of course the wicked man will be punished for his wickedness; but so will Ezekiel, who failed to warn him.

·        But if Ezekiel warns the wicked man and yet the wicked man still remains in his sin, Ezekiel will be absolved of the wicked man’s guilt; only the wicked man in this case will be punished for his wickedness.

The Lord is very clear here; Ezekiel and indeed all people are responsible for helping others to turn away from sin.  Each of us is: “my brother’s keeper; my sister’s keeper;” each of us can help keep a brother or sister away from sin.

In the gospel passage we have just heard, the Lord expands the message given to Ezekiel.  He expects of Christians, like was expected of the prophet Ezekiel, to help sinful fellow Christians.  But even more, Jesus provides a template or blueprint showing exactly a four-step, gradual process of bringing back the sinner to the correct path.

Jesus says: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”  This is the first step, a one-on-one interaction.  We call this fraternal correction.  We might say to Maggie, “you were kind of brush with me yesterday.”  And in this way we help a brother or sister realise that they have done wrong.  There is great hope that the sinner will realise his mistake, change his  or her behaviour and return to the right path.  This is the hope that Jesus expresses when he says:  “If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.”

Unfortunately, some sinners will not accept this personal fraternal correction.  That is where the second step comes in.  Jesus 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.’”  This is more like calling for backup or doing an intervention.  The backup of more people is needed for two main reasons.  First of all, in the Jewish legal system and probably in ours today, the witness of two or more was required to sustain a case in court.  And so, two or three people were necessary to give evidence about the wrongdoing, should that be needed later.  But a second and more important reason is that two or more members of the community might help the sinner see his bad ways more easily than one person.  There is strength in numbers, so they say.  One or two more people bring a slightly wider perspective to the situation and often, the person realizes the error of their ways and returns to the path of righteousness.

When the person refuses to listen to the small group, Jesus provides a third step. “Tell the Church,” Jesus says.  This step involves bringing in the wider Christian community, especially the Church leaders.  In our language today, we might call this step: “Bring in the big guns.”  For our sins affect the community; our sins give a bad example to others in the community, especially to the young; our sins make the community weaker; our sins often hurt other members of our community.  And so if the first two steps, the personal and the small-group intervention have failed to take care of the problem, the whole community, especially through the church leaders, need to get involved.

Unfortunately, as you and I know, some people will persist in their sin and will never accept the advice of one person, a small group of people or even the whole Church.  And here Jesus prescribes the ultimate measure: “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”  To a Jewish listener at Jesus’ time, a gentile or tax-collector represented a person who was not usually a part of the community; he was an outsider or someone to be expelled and excluded.  And this is the medicine he recommends for the adamant sinner, who has refused the three other attempts to treat him.  This last measure is what today we might call the nuclear option.

Christian Life

My friends, the call to be our brothers’ keepers and our sisters’ keepers is most urgent today.  We live in times of political correctness, when we are extremely reluctant to butt into the affairs of other people.  While individualism and privacy might be values for society, they are not Christian virtues.  Christians take care of each other, not just attending to each other’s hunger, thirst and illness, but we also take care of each other’s sins. And when we do help each other to overcome sinfulness, we must do so, as Jesus taught us.

1.    That is why our one-on-one fraternal corrections must be done with love and with the intention of helping each other become better.  We must not become nitpickers.  Especially as parents, we must learn what is important enough to correct in our children and what we can let slide by.  For if the only time they hear us speak to them is to correct this or that, they will stop listening at all and we shall have failed in our job.  We must speak truth, with love.  It often bring me joy to see when families are gathered together, all the adults, are responsible for the discipline of the children present, be they nieces, nephews, grandchildren etc.

2.    When we have to use the second step, the small group intervention, we must resist the temptation to gossip.  Again involving other people in this process is not a time to fan the rumour mill, otherwise the sinner will become ashamed, defensive and be pushed further into sin.  Our intervention must be done in genuine love for the sinner rather than the desire to bring them down.  How often I am pleased to see friends intervening to stop someone from falling further into alcohol or drugs.

3.    When we use the third step, reporting the matter to the Community, we must once again resist the temptation to become snitches.  This step is only used when the first two have failed; but it is also only used so that the community might bring to bear its collective influence and wisdom on the person and bring them back to God.  Often the community does this through praying for the sinner and leaders admonishing the sinner, sometimes even publicly.  That is why sometimes our bishops have to remind politicians and even theologians of their errant ways.

4.    Finally, the last step, the exclusion or expulsion or excommunication of the sinner should be used as a last resort, only after everything else has failed.  This expulsion is meant to help the person change.  While he or she is temporarily cast out of the community, Jesus hopes that the person will come to their senses, see the light and return to God.  The expulsion is therefore more of a medicine than a punishment.  I have seen this step used in families, when Uncle Jimmy is not invited to Thanksgiving dinner, because despite repeated warnings, he refuse to stop his vulgar language in front of the kids.

Conclusion

We are on this journey of salvation together.  That is why we must cover each other’s back, not by covering up their error, but by bringing it to their attention so that they might change.

I will end with a quote from someone much wiser than me, about our journey to salvation:

We need to save ourselves together, to arrive together at God’s door, to present ourselves together.  We must not enter the Good Lord’s house, only some of us without the others.  We need to return to the house of our Father, all of us together.  What will he say to us, if we arrive there without our brothers and sisters?  What shall we say to God if we arrive there without our brothers and sisters?