In our first reading, God says to the prophet Ezekiel: You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel. This statement reminds me what my Father told me before he passed away. Reminds me of my experience years ago. In 2010, my father was in the hospital. And one day before he died, my father called me and said: He is prepared to go. As a priest, I leave you in charge of keeping the family united close to God. You are the keeper of your brothers. Make sure that everyone is behaving in Christian way. Don’t forget to pray for each one of them. After my father died, I used to call my brothers and sisters once a month and talk to them a little bit about their children and faith. And one day, I called my oldest brother and asked him if he was still going to Catholic Church. I don’t know if my brother was in a bad mood. He was mean with me. But the thing is, he said to me that, it is not my business. He is mature enough to decide about his faith. It is his life. He can do whatever he wants. In reply, I said to him that as a Christian, it is my business to help him to follow God. It is my business to worry about his faith.
As a Christian, I am in charge of my brothers and sisters and make sure that everyone is behaving in Christian way. As Christians we are in charge of our brothers and sisters. This is what many Christians miss. This is many Catholics forget. When you try to correct someone who is doing something wrong or to call his attention, we often hear people say that it is not your business. It is my life, my body. I can do whatever I want. Mind your business. That is why many people prefer to keep silent, they don’t say anything even when they see something bad happening. They are afraid to hurt, to be rejected. We let so many people drink themselves into trouble and never tell them. How much injustice we see in the world, and we don’t say anything? How much violence, evildoing we see, but we are indifferent. How much suffering we see in the world, how much, hunger, poverty we see in the world but we keep silent. How many young people smoke, do drugs and are involved with a bad group but no one says anything. However today’s readings come to challenge us.
Today’s readings come to remind us of our responsibility to be watchmen to one another. Our responsibility to be keepers of one another, our responsibility to make sure that all behave in Christian way. That is why, in our first reading, God says to the prophet, I have appointed you watchman of the house of Israel, when you receive the mission to proclaim and warn the wicked. If you do not do that, the wicked will be condemned for his fault. But God will hold you responsible for his death. Jesus repeats the same recommendation in the gospel when He says that if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault ……go and tell him his fault. So, the readings tell us that as members of the body of Christ (Church), we are accountable to each one another. Quite often we miss this. We forget that. We consider ourselves accountable to God, but we don’t consider the effect our actions have on each other. As watchmen, we have social responsibility to one another, to take care of the hungry, the homeless, the victims of the hurricane. That is why we help in Saint Vincent de Paul, Haiti and Saint Benedict. Thank you for your generosity. In doing so, we show our solidarity to others as members of the body of Christ.
As keepers of our brothers and sisters, we have a spiritual responsibility to one another to make sure that all are behaving in Christian way. That is why Jesus says in the gospel that if your brother is doing something wrong, go to talk to him. Go to correct him in loving way. It is our task to say to those who commit injustice, violence, hatred to stop the evil wrongdoing. It is our duty, our mission to correct those who are lost, those who are destroying families. It is our duty to tell our friends, young to stop destroying their bodies with alcohol, or drugs. It is our duty to tell our friends to stop spreading gossip or division. If we keep silent, if we don’t do that, God will hold us responsible of his death. In some way, we have responsibility to those who stop believing in God. We have the responsibility to those who don’t come to Church. We have responsibility to those who have left Catholic Church. We have the responsibility to those young people who are lost in drugs, in smoking, in alcoholism, and are involved in bad crowds. Because we don’t do anything to help them.
If your brother or sister does something wrong, you need to go to correct him. It is our responsibility. It is your responsibility. It is a command. Jesus says, go to talk to him. But before going to correct your brothers or sisters, before you go, do your examination of conscience. Before you go, make sure that you are cleaned. In small and big things we are each others’ keepers. Jesus is saying something like that today. We have social responsibility in the family and in the neighborhood and even worldwide for the common good. God wants the best for each of us. We can help each other to goodness, we can support each other, advise each other, pray for and with each other, and help each other on our way to God. Let us be the source of hope and encouragement for one another.
