My Brother's Keeper

When God asked Cain where his brother Abel, whom he had killed in envy, was, Cain retorted, saying "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9b) God did not refute him directly but the answer is obvious. We are our brothers' keepers. Why not? We should love our neighbour as ourselves. Isn't my brother one of my closest neighbour? We share the same genes!

In the immediate preceding section of today's gospel reading, we hear the same story of leaving behind 99 sheep to look for the one lost sheep and the joy of recovering it (Matthew 18:12-13). Jesus stated unambiguously that God rejoices in seeing sinners repent. He does not will to see anyone perish.
So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14).
So be it that we should try our best to help our fallen brothers. Jesus himself has set an example for us. He came to reconcile us with God. Therefore, we help our fallen brothers through reconciliation. This is the theme of the reading next week. So, let us focus more on the theme today. Jesus told us a three-step procedure to settle disputes between members of the Church.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector (Matthew 18:15-17).

At first sight, we may find it strange to bring up the dispute between two people to the Church level if the two of them cannot settle it between themselves. After all, it is only a dispute between two people and cannot be more than personal. Why should we get so many people involved?
Our most likely response to disputes is to tolerate injustice done to us. This is Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:39-42, the Beatitudes. If we cannot tolerate but can afford the loss, we quit to save the trouble. We do not want to see the offender any more. (I have to admit that this attitude does not quite follow the spirit of the Beatitudes.) We will seek a third party to adjudicate if we cannot afford the loss. This kind of reasoning is understandable for us modern urban people because we have been brought up in an individualistic environment. We stress more and more about personal freedom and human rights. We identify ourselves less and less as members of a city, a nation and humanity at large. Consequently, we become more and more indifferent to the plights of our neighbour. However, in previous ages, people were more community-minded. They took it their responsibility the well-being of their neighbour. They did not simply want to redress their loss. They cared about the souls of their neighbour as well. Nowadays, we couldn't care less. In short, we are selfish and selfishness is a sin! Therefore, for the sake of our own soul, we had better follow Jesus' procedure.

I think here lies the mission of Christians in modern days. We need to uphold the spirit of the Gospel. We need to care about not only the welfare of our souls, but also those of our brothers'. We will be more like our heavenly Father if we rejoice in the recovery of the "little ones". Do we? Do we rather rejoice in seeing the bad guys punished?

The hardest thing to do is to take the first step, Fr. Milanese said this morning in the homily. We would rather choose the easy way out instead of facing our offender face to face. This is all very human, very natural. Here lies the challenge of the spirit of gospel. We don't have the courage to face our offenders without God's grace. However, like what the prophet Ezekiel said, God would hold us responsible for the fall of our brothers if we fail to bring them the warning message. He would mete out the same punishments to both of us.
If I tell the wicked man that he shall surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, he (the wicked man) shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death (Ezekiel 33:8).
How seriously do we take the Old Testament prophet's message?
Jesus took two steps further. We do not bring the warning message perfunctorily like what Jonah did to the people of Nineveh. We need to give our brothers ample chances to repent. If seeing our brothers face to face fails to solve the dispute, bring in a mediator, a middleman. Most civil cases would be settled in this stage. Of course, our brothers would think that we are gang up against them. They might bring in theirs and a controversy would arose. That is how the Church enters into the picture ... Unfortunately, when the secular government is involved, things become too complicated for us to discuss within the space allowed here. I am referring to those child abuse cases involving priests. May God have mercy on the souls of the victims and the offenders.

Dear Lord, grant me the virtue of charity so that I may be courageous enough to admit my faults. Amen.