HOMILY FOR THE 23rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A

1. Ez 33: 7-9

2.Rom 13: 8-10

Gospel: Mt 18:15-20

                             " On fraternal correction."

In one of the fables of Aesop we find the following story. Once upon a time, the sun and wind made a bet as to who was the mightier as to compel a guy wearing  a jacket to remove it. " That is easy" the wind bragged as it blew hard and violent. But the more he did, the more the man wrapped his arms around his jacket. After several more attempts, the wind gave up.

It was the turn of the sun now. Using no force or violence, he simply kept rising the temperature. In no time, the man started to perspire. Un able to bear the heat, he quickly removed his jacket! A perspective gentle approach is more effective than harsh, negative one.

Brothers and sisters in our today's gospel Jesus teaches us about fraternal correction and how to correct others. Why should we correct our brothers and sisters? we simply correct them not because they are bad and we are good. But because we are going to bring them back into our fold, save them and let them be united with us.  Fraternal correction must be dedicated by love.

Jesus gives us a pattern to be followed by us. This begins by coming to the offender personally and have an immediate dialogue with him/her. Man- to -man approach, that is, only between the two of you. Talk to him personally about his wrong doings and faults. This is done privately in order to avoid embarrassment. We should not bring the case to the radio station or to the neighbor since this does not solve the case, instead it simply propagates envies and resentments. It becomes good if we do it in a prayerful atmosphere.

This if followed by having recourse to two or three ' witnesses' like the family, respected persons and others, with us to help in the process of reconciliation. And finally we must take our personal troubles to the Church. We take it to the church because we need an atmosphere of prayer, love and fellowship that personal relationships may be righted. If he is still not amenable, then, that's the time that we isolate the person.

However, it is sad to say that we follow different pattern, which is quite opposite to that suggested to us by Jesus. What happens? We immediately  isolate the offender. The next step that we do is we broadcast it to the community, to our friends and to other people in the community. Only at the end when we don't know what to do anymore and this is now the time that we approach and talk to the offender.

Let us bear in our minds that fraternal correction is something that is not easy to do because there are some people who do not have the courage to talk in a man- to- man approach. Although fraternal correction is difficult to do but it is a Christian way when we do it. It is better to risk talking to the offender in order to solve the problems rather than allow it to fester until it explodes. Correcting others is too difficult to do because, in correcting them, we have to be ready to be corrected in return in the sense that none of us is perfect. The fable of Aesop narrated at the beginning of this reflection above is a good application for that.

We should forgive in the sense that forgiveness is beautiful. Beautiful people are becoming more beautiful. This does not necessarily mean that if we forgive our acne and pimples will be wiped out, but in the eyes of God we become beautiful and handsome because we forgive. We have reasons to forgive because the unforgiving heart is poisoned. The person who continues blaming or holding resentment against someone feels guilty, insecure, vindictive, unhappy, bitter, hateful, jealous and angry. These feelings literally poison if he or she does not resolve them. Un forgiving heart result into high blood pressure, development of ulcer and ill health. Who would like to have ulcers or strokes or suffer from high blood pressure? Nobody, but nobody is also ready to forgive. When we refuse to forgive, we punish ourselves.

We have already heard above that fraternal correction should be done in a prayerful atmosphere. If we see something wrong in a person, the first thing that we do is to get angry with him or her and if not , to tell another person about our anger. This is wrong. The first person that we should inform first is not the person who committed the mistakes, but it is God in prayer. It is seldom we do this.

If somebody had hurt us, talk to God first about that person. If somebody needs correction, talk to God first. If somebody needs to be criticized, consult first God about the criticism you want to say. The most effective way of correcting other people is by prayer. We must realize that it is not our good words that change the hearts of others. It is not our beautiful words that make people change their ways. It is only by the grace of God. Only God can change people, not us. It seems that this is our belief. It is only God who can correct  hearts, not us.

Prayer:  Lord, we pray for ourselves, and for those people we want to correct and we want to criticize. We pray for our minds and hearts be one in forgiveness.     

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