“Responsibility to Share the Faith” - 23rd Sunday OT (A) – 9.10.23

“Responsibility to Share the Faith”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

St. Mark the Evangelist Parish - Butler/Cranberry, PA

Mass Readings- https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091023.cfm

Our readings today show us that once we come to an understanding of the truth of Jesus Christ, we have a responsibility to share that truth with others.

We believe as Catholics that we have the fullness of the truth of Jesus Christ, as this is what is revealed in the Gospel. The Gospel shows us that Jesus gave authority to the first Apostles when He tells them, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Because we believe that the Church has the fullness of the truth, and the authority to establish teachings and determine what laws and commandments align with God’s plan, then we have the responsibility to lead others to this truth since there are real consequences for not following the way of Christ.

In the first reading, we have the example the watchman. The role of the watchman was to protect the city from any attacks, especially surprise attacks of the enemy.

Prophets were compared to the watchman of a city because in a spiritual sense they were to keep watch for any spiritual attacks from the devil, and make sure that the people were following the ways of God.

There is a culpability that we have if we see someone doing something against the faith to tell them. We have a responsibility to offer fraternal correction when needed.

Now there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this.

There are people when they see someone going down the wrong path, or doing something against Church teaching they don’t handle it in a very Christian way.

We have to remember the point of any fraternal correction is that it must be done with the motivation to bring reconciliation and unity, and it must be done out of love. It is not to shame them, or to humiliate them, or to prove that we are right and they are wrong. We are also not to shove our religion into their faces. We are not to use our faith as a weapon. It is not to criticize just to criticize. Or throw their sins back into their faces. It must be done with humility and love, and a genuine desire to help lead them into the truth of Jesus Christ.

For the most part, people will know if you have their best interests in mind or not. They will know if what you are doing is out of love or another motivation.

In the Gospel, Jesus gives us a model to follow in how to address the issue with the person. He says first we must talk with them one-on-one. Again, we aren’t to publicly shame them and call them out in public. We address the issue one-on-one. If that doesn’t work, then bring someone else into it with you to talk with them. Then, if that doesn’t work, bring it to the Church community. If they continue to refuse to change from their ways, then you’ve done all you can do, and the guilt is on them at this point.

In this situation, when the person refuses to turn from their ways, and you’ve said all you can say, then we must surrender that person and the entire situation to God. We must put it into His hands, praying for the grace that one day they will come to see and change their ways.

Now, how exactly do we do this? There isn’t a one-size fits all answer because each situation is unique because every person and every relationship is unique. So there will be different approaches in each situation.

However, there are some principles that we can keep in mind when approaching someone in our life for fraternal correction.

First, we need to be living a holy life, and make sure that we are a good witness to the faith. It will not go well if we approach someone to correct them about something, but we are not following the faith well ourselves. They’ll immediately react and call us a hypocrite for trying to call them out. Now we are all sinners, so it doesn’t mean we will live our faith out perfectly, but if people see that we are a holy person who is genuinely trying to live their faith out and we treat others with love and respect, then they’ll be more responsive to any fraternal correction that we may give them.

Secondly, pray and fast for that person. We can’t expect any of us to change without the grace and help from God. So we must be praying for them.

Thirdly, there has to be a sense of humility when we give any sort of correction. If it’s not done with humility then we’ll have the temptation to allow our pride to get in the way which can lead to us not correcting in love, but out of judgement or self-righteousness or criticizing just to criticize.

Next, give the person the benefit of the doubt and don’t judge. I say this because sometimes we behave in a sinful way because we are dealing with deeper wounds in our hearts. You never know what someone is going through that is leading to their behavior. You may not know what their upbringing was like and what other factors are playing into their behavior.

Another thing to consider is that tt may be good to, instead of just jumping into the fraternal correction directly, to learn about what they believe and what their worldview is. This will help in getting them to receive our correction better because we will be showing that we care about what they think and aren’t just trying to shove our beliefs into their face.

Next, pray for courage. Giving fraternal correction is uncomfortable and very difficult. You may do everything right and they may flat out reject you and get angry at you. Don’t worry about saying the perfect thing. Just make sure that you are doing it out of love and for the sake of reconciliation and unity.

Finally, I know that what is most pressing on our hearts is our family, especially our kids. I imagine that there are many parents today who have children who have left the faith, or siblings who have brothers and sisters who have left the faith.

At a child’s baptism, the parents profess to accepting the responsibility of raising the children in the faith. This is a big responsibility that unfortunately the majority of parents in our culture don’t fulfill. However, there are many who do understand this responsibility and have done everything possible to raise their children in the faith, and for a variety of different reasons, the children have left the faith.

If this is you, I just want to say it’s not your fault. You did not fail as a parent if you did everything possible to raise your child to follow Christ, and for whatever reason they have fallen away. Many parents will see it as a failure on their end and feel like they didn’t do a good enough job in raising their children in the faith because if they did, then their children would still be practicing.

We can do everything right, and people still may not listen. It doesn’t mean you failed, it just means in their freedom they chose not to accept the faith.

If this is your situation, there are a few things I encourage you to do.

First, don’t lose hope and never stop praying for them. Your job as a parent is not over. Even if you’ve gotten past the point where your child won’t listen to you anymore about the faith, you can still pray and fast for them. Everyone is on a different path to God, and God can bring them back at any time, even if it takes until the very moment of their death. So must we always pray and maintain hope.

Second, Surrender them to God. For the most part you’ve done all that you can do. Entrust them to God and place the entire situation into His hands. God desires their salvation more than you could ever desire it from them, which is saying a lot because I know you deeply desire their salvation.

Another thing to do is to continue to encourage them to pray and have a relationship with God even if they keep brushing it off. Leave a holy card or rosary or some resource or religious item. You never know what will resonate or what will stick.

Be patient as this process of conversion may take many years and decades. Allow the Lord to show you the right opportunities to speak up even if it’s many months or years in between conversations where you share the faith with them.

Finally, one thing maybe to avoid, is constantly saying to them, “go to Church.” What I mean by this is that, for one, of course getting to church is the goal and needs to happen, but simply telling them over and over again to go to Church is not going to get them to go. If anything, they’ll eventually block you out.

You have to play to a person’s heart. Think about their current situation and struggles and show them how God can enter into their struggle and how He can help them. We instinctively know that going to Church is part of our faith. So we don’t need to say that all that time. There are other approaches that allow us to play to a person’s heart, to make the faith look attractive.

There is much more that can be said, but ultimately we have a responsibility to share the truth of Jesus Christ with those around us, especially those who are going astray. There is a not one-size fits all solution, but if we give fraternal correction out of love and humility and desiring their good, and we are a good witness to the faith ourselves, then they’ll be more receptive to any fraternal correction that we give. They may listen, they may not. If they don’t, surrender it all to God and put it in His hands, and never lose hope. Because God is constantly at work in our lives, and our praying and fasting for the person will help bring about their conversion. Allow God to guide the process and let Him lead them to their salvation in the proper time.