Verbal fillers, stumbles, and repetitions have been removed while keeping the original phrasing, theological precision, and cadence intact.

The Prophet as Watchman: Ezekiel 33

For this 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, we look at the first reading and the psalm. It is an intriguing and sometimes baffling text from Ezekiel 33:7–9, which is repeated almost word-for-word in verses 17–19:

"Thus says the Lord: 'I have appointed you watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me. If I tell the wicked man, "O wicked one, you shall surely die," and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If you warn the wicked man, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.'"

This is profound. If you put this in terms of Christian and Catholic theology, we are talking about fraternal correction: telling someone they are in trouble so they will turn away from it. It is becoming harder and harder to do this today because our culture insists, "Mind your own business; this is a free country." Yet, two individuals never cease offering us correction: Our Lord and Our Lady. In many authentic apparitions and locutions, Our Lord and Our Lady continually call people to turn away from sin and trust in divine love. In one instance, Our Lord remarked that the sin stirring up His anger more than any other is abortion.

St. Thomas Aquinas on Fraternal Correction and Spiritual Almsgiving

St. Thomas Aquinas's reflections on fraternal correction clarify both this reading and the Gospel. St. Thomas asks: Is correction a work of charity? He answers that it is indeed an act of love—a form of spiritual almsgiving. If I see you in spiritual danger and do nothing, where is my love for you?

Fraternal correction does not require confronting someone abrasively with demands to repent; rather, it means finding gentle ways to win them over. It is an act of authentic charity to point out when someone is living in sin, headed toward ruin, and in need of turning back to the Lord. When undertaken in this spirit, it can yield profound grace. There have been moments in my own life when I hesitated to speak, but the Lord prompted me to intervene; upon hearing the truth, the person wept tears of relief and underwent a true change of heart.

The Responsibility of the Shepherd

I recall giving a retreat to priests early in my ministry, down south during the Second Vatican Council. There were forty or fifty priests present, including one outside practicing his golf swing who clearly needed the spiritual renewal of the retreat. The priest running the retreat house was struggling noticeably with alcohol; by noon each day, his intoxication was evident to everyone. Though I was the youngest priest there, I was the retreat director and realized I could not remain silent. I approached him gently and said, "Father, I think you are drinking too much." He immediately broke down in tears and replied, "Thank God somebody finally said something." He went away to a treatment facility, received the help he needed, and later returned to fruitful ministry at that retreat house.

Sin easily enslaves us, leaving us feeling powerless to escape until a word spoken in truth breaks the cycle. That is why correction is an act of love and justice. For a parish pastor, addressing matters that place souls at risk—such as contraception, abortion, and same-sex marriage—is an essential duty. A pastor need not fulminate like Savonarola, but he must strive to lead his people away from harmful practices.

Scripture speaks of entering a home and offering peace: if a person of peace resides there, the peace remains. Many discerning priests can enter a home and sense the underlying spiritual bondages present. When a couple struggles, they need wisdom, pastoral care, and guidance—not harsh burdens, but truth spoken in charity. The same principle applies when ministering to those facing grave sins like adultery or abortion. Standing outside an abortion clinic offering prayer, counseling, adoption resources, and practical aid is a direct fulfillment of Ezekiel’s call to fraternal correction.

The Courage to Preach the Truth

For Ezekiel, this was not merely advice between friends; he was commissioned as a prophet by God under strict accountability: "If you do not warn him and he dies, I will hold you responsible."

Preachers must take note. When a pastor sees members of his flock falling into sin, abusing substances, or enduring broken marriages, intervening is an act of pastoral charity. While secular culture demands silence, the priest's vocation makes the salvation of souls his primary concern.

A newly ordained priest in an upper-middle-class parish once stepped into the pulpit and said, "Please pray for me right now, because I have a very difficult sermon to deliver." After a moment of silent prayer, he preached courageously and charitably on the Church's teachings regarding contraception. When he finished, the entire congregation stood and applauded. Love inspired his courage, and the people recognized the truth.

The Universal Call and Our Lady's Message

While preachers carry a distinct obligation, the Gospel extends this responsibility to everyone: if you see your brother sinning, go and address it with him privately.

Every priest, bishop, and deacon is established as a watchman for the household of the Church. Moreover, Our Lady of Fatima came precisely to offer motherly fraternal correction to the world. The Fatima prayer now prayed in the Rosary reflects this exact mission: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy."

Pope Pius XII accurately diagnosed our modern dilemma when he stated that the greatest sin of our age is the loss of the sense of sin. When the reality of sin is ignored, deep personal and communal estrangement follows.

I witnessed the power of honest confrontation when introducing two friends—one an Israeli and the other a Palestinian. They engaged in an intensely candid conversation. The Israeli asked, "Do you want to kill me? I have taken your land." The Palestinian replied, "No, I do not want to kill you; too much blood has already been spilled." Later, the Palestinian shared that her sister, who now directs the oncology department at a major hospital in northern Israel, initially attended an ulpan (an intensive Hebrew language school). When she tried speaking with the Israeli students, they initially avoided her. An Israeli acquaintance later explained, "If I really look at you, I have to take an honest look at myself, and I am not ready to do that yet." That level of radical honesty paves the way for genuine transformation and reconciliation.

Psalm 95: "Harden Not Your Hearts"

Psalm 95 reinforces this call to conversion:

"Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us sing joyful songs to the Lord... Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us."

The central exhortation comes in the final verse:

"If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works."

A hardened heart is the natural consequence of persistent disobedience and refusing to hear the truth. This warning directly challenges modern individualism, which says, "You do your thing, and I will do mine." When someone is trapped in addiction or destructive sin, indifference allows lives, marriages, and families to be ruined. Genuine Christian charity compels us to speak the truth in love whenever the Lord calls us to do so.

Verbal fillers, stumbles, and repetitions have been removed while keeping the original phrasing, theological precision, and cadence intact.

Context and Structure of Romans 13

We are looking at the second reading for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, taken from Romans 13. In the New American Bible, the chapter is structured into three main sections:

• Verses 1–7: Obedience to Authority
• Verses 8–10: Love Fulfills the Law
• Verses 11–14: Awareness of the End of Time ("Now is the hour to awake from sleep")

The liturgical reading concentrates on the middle section concerning mutual debt, where St. Paul reveals that the only lasting debt we owe to one another is the debt of love.

Legitimate Authority and Moral Law

To appreciate the full context, we consider the opening verses of Romans 13:

"Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves."

This raises the question of the early Christian martyrs, who were forced to resist civil allegiance when the Roman Empire demanded worship of false gods. In Greco-Roman paganism, the gods were viewed as unpredictable cosmic forces that needed constant appeasement; morality was taught primarily by philosophers rather than religion.

By contrast, the Jewish people learned morality directly from God through the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law. Obedience to the Law was direct obedience to God. This moral integrity drew many Gentiles to attend synagogue services on the Sabbath, admiring Jewish family stability and their refusal to practice abortion or infant exposure. Tacitus went so far as to claim that the Jewish refusal to discard unwanted children made them "enemies of mankind," highlighting the vast moral gulf between pagan culture and divine law.

St. Paul urges discernment, recognizing that legitimate authority acts in service to good order:

"For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it, for it is a servant of God for your good."

When authority functions reasonably, it serves the common good:

"This is why you pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God devoting themselves to this very thing. Pay to all their dues: taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due."

The Debt of Love and the Ten Commandments

St. Paul then elevates the discussion from civil compliance to Christian charity:

"Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

This basic moral principle—treating others as you wish to be treated—resonates across ethical philosophy, but Paul grounds it in divine charity. If you truly love your neighbor, you will not commit adultery with your neighbor's spouse, you will not commit murder, you will not steal, and you will not covet.

In the rabbinic tradition, covetousness is understood as the root of all sin. St. Paul addresses this in Romans 7, noting that the Law reveals the reality of concupiscence: "I did not know sin except through the law; for I did not know what it is to covet except that the law said, 'You shall not covet.'" As the Epistle of James also observes, selfish desire and covetousness spark internal division, arguments, and wars.

"Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law."

The Ten Commandments set the boundaries for truly human living. Outside those boundaries lies inhumanity. God’s commandments are not arbitrary restrictions; they serve as an "operator's manual" for the human person, lovingly establishing the guardrails that preserve human dignity.

Experiencing Divine Mercy to Love Others

Living this commandment requires experiencing how the Lord forgives and loves us. When we receive divine mercy, our hearts expand to forgive and love our neighbors.

This reading from Romans harmonizes with the call to fraternal correction found in the first reading and the Gospel. Correcting a brother or sister in charity is not an act of condemnation; it is an effort to rescue them from the self-inflicted harm of sin, as when a gentle, direct word helps free someone from alcoholism and leads them back to the sacraments.

When we live in obedience to the Lord, an active awareness of love shapes ordinary daily interactions:

• Offering a simple gesture of assistance, such as helping an elderly or struggling commuter up the steep steps of a bus, naturally inspires kindness and reciprocity in others.
• Years ago, while having lunch in New York with the lay apostle Veronica O'Brien, I treated our young waitress with simple kindness. Veronica turned to me and said, "That's right, Father; they are looking for Christ in you." Those words have remained with me for decades whenever I interact with people in daily life.

Ultimately, Romans 13 demonstrates that while civil duties like taxes and respect have their place, our supreme, permanent calling is charity. Loving our neighbor is not merely a legal obligation, but the active work of the Holy Spirit living within us.

Verbal fillers, stumbles, and repetitions have been removed while keeping the original phrasing, theological precision, and cadence intact.

Textual Transmission and Manuscript Variants

For this 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, we examine the Gospel reading, which builds directly on the first reading where Ezekiel is appointed a watchman to turn people away from their sin.

This passage presents an intriguing textual question. In Matthew 18:15, some manuscripts read, "If your brother sins against you," while others simply read, "If your brother sins." The two great fourth-century codices—Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus—omit the words "against you."

This distinction carries theological significance:

• If the reading is "sins against you," the issue is framed as a private, personal grievance where an individual must seek reconciliation.
• If the reading is simply "sins," it highlights a shared responsibility within the Christian community, the family, or the parish. Bishops and pastors, in particular, bear spiritual responsibility for the souls entrusted to their care.

Before the printing press, ancient manuscripts were produced by dictation to groups of scribes. Textual variants arose when a scribe misheard a word or copied from a text with an earlier scribal slip. In Koine Greek, vowels and diphthongs often shared identical pronunciations (such as hēmon, "our," versus hymin, "your" in 1 John). In Greek, hamartēsē ("sins") and hamartēsē eis se ("sins against you") sound very similar. Despite these copyist variations, the New Testament has far more manuscript evidence—and far greater textual reliability—than any other ancient historical document. The broader reading ("if your brother sins") emphasizes that fraternal correction is an act of charity and spiritual almsgiving toward any brother in spiritual peril.

The Pastoral Step: Winning Over a Brother

The Gospel outlines a careful, step-by-step process of pastoral charity:

"Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother."

This directive is about saving a brother, not humiliating him. When someone is trapped in serious sin—such as severe addiction—a private, direct, and charitable word can break through denial. When prompted by the Lord to address such situations, stepping forward in love can bring a soul to repentance, confession, and lasting healing.

The Escalation: Witnesses and the Church

When private correction fails, Christ provides further steps to restore the individual:

"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.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church."

This approach draws upon the Mosaic standard (Deuteronomy 19:15) requiring two or three witnesses to establish a matter. "Telling the Church" does not mean public gossip or shaming from the pulpit; it means involving the pastoral authority of the Christian community to intervene for the person's salvation.

Sin diminishes human nature. When persistent and unrepented, grave sin alienates the soul from God, leading to eternal separation in hell. Damnation is not forced upon anyone against their will; it is the tragic outcome of a heart that persistently hardens itself against grace. A hardened heart can reach the point of actively rejecting God's mercy even when it is extended.

"If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."

This separation, echoed in St. Paul's letters to the Corinthians, reflects the medicine of excommunication. In the early Church, being excluded from the Eucharist was intended to make the sinner feel the weight of their spiritual estrangement and prompt repentance. Today, certain grave actions—such as direct participation in abortion—carry automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication. While secular culture often rationalizes grave moral evils under the guise of personal freedom, the Church's pastoral discipline serves as a vital reminder that no one has a moral right to do what is gravely evil.

Binding, Loosing, and the Presence of Christ

The Gospel concludes with Christ entrusting authority and communal efficacy to the Church:

"Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

This power of binding and loosing—granted supremely to the Apostles and their successors—governs communion, reconciliation, and sacramental life.

Furthermore, Christ underscores the power of communal prayer:

"Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

As St. Paul writes in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit intercedes within us with inexpressible groanings. When believers gather in Christ's name, Jesus Himself prays in their midst to the Father.

The Church is not merely a social club; it is the living Body of Christ where the Lord is truly present. This reading calls the entire community—and especially parents, who act as primary watchmen for their children—to exercise vigilance, wisdom, and genuine love in guiding souls toward Christ.