It is said that "to err is human, but to forgive is divine". This means that all of us are prone to stumble and fall…all of us can make mistakes, commit blunders and errors, and even sins. By nature we are weak, sinful and unworthy. God alone is perfectly holy!

From the cradle to the grave we are in need of every kind of help: physical, psychological, moral and spiritual. This also means that there will always be the need for good friends who will tell us our mistakes, errors, who will show us the right path when we go astray.

The reading from the book of the prophet Ezechiel (Ch. 3: 17-21) is really interesting and challenging. Let us take time to read it, reflect on it, and put it into practice in humility and charity.

There is a duty and responsibility placed on us to correct a wicked person, to call a sinner to repentance, to tell a person who is off the track, who may have glaring weakness and who may even lose his vocation, if he is a priest or religious and if we do not warn him.

We are liable to severe punishment for the sin of omission, for not correcting the person in time and thus saving him from death.

More surprising still is about the virtuous man who happens to turn away from virtue and does wrong when God places a stumbling block before him…God himself places a stumbling block before a virtuous man and God said to Ezechiel that he would hold him responsible for the death of that virtuous man if he did not warn him.

Two things emerge from this: that God himself places a stumbling block before a virtuous man and he is meant to turn it into a stepping stone. Each stumbling block must become a stepping stone. Secondly the duty of each brother who loves his brother to warn him on time; more frightening is when we think of the duty of superiors and Brothers in charge of formation to correct the Brothers who are under their care. They should not be afraid to tell things or correct a brother on time. "Stitch in time, saves nine". But the way of correcting is very important. Fraternal correction is a ‘must’. Given it with due respect and inspired by love is a favour we should be grateful, even if it hurts our pride.

We have far more faults than we know. We must become more and more grateful to those who correct us with love and respect. Blessed Pope John XXIII, when he joined the seminary asked two of his friends to tell him his faults and mistakes every day. This helped him much and he did not go about with the idea that he was all perfect. None of us is fully perfect. There is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us. All of us are in need of help from each other. On the other hand we have to help one another. We are told to love one another as Jesus loved us on the cross and as he loves us now in the Eucharist. This love must be transmitted; by our love all will come to know who we are.

Jesus encourages fraternal correction, privately if possible, but failing that, along with others or with the assistance of the Church. In our case if there is a real need, then refer the matter to the Father General and his Councillors. Before doing it, try to put into practice the words of Jesus, namely:

In the dramatic presentation of the story of King David in the II Book of Samuel, Chapter 12, is another example of man’s utter weakness, complete blindness and terrible fall. The divine pedagogy of how God through his prophet Natan made David not only understand and accept his terrible sins but made him to be his own judge without making David realise that it was he himself and not somebody else who did the terrible thing that deserved not only restitution but even death. Listen to David’s reaction and his judgement: "David grew angry with the man. ‘If God lives’ he said to Natan ‘the man who did this deserves to die. For doing such a thing and for having shown no pity, he shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb’" (2 Sam 12: 5-6). Natan said to David: "You are the man". How often we may have to hear such words like this: "That man is you" or "You are the man", as the Jerusalem Bible puts it. From this terrible, tragic and humiliating experience of David, we have the beautiful psalm known as "The Miserere" (Ps. 51). Here we have an example of divine correction…how to correct a "Brother" who errs, who sins, who is inclined to go astray. God does not crush the person, but makes him understand his faults, sins and even makes him his own judge without letting him know that "He was the man" in question. In fact God is more merciful than man. God wants the sinner to repent and accept his mercy and become a saviour. David wanted the man to die: "As Yahweh lives, that man who did this deserves to die". On the contrary Yahweh forgives David: "Yahweh for his part, forgives your sin; you are not to die…" (2Sam 12: 14). "God is slow to anger, rich in mercy and quick to forgive". We are often just the opposite of what God is: quick to anger, slow to forgive, rich in taking revenge.

Before we rush to correct a brother, we should pray to the Holy Spirit to inspire and guide us to help the Brother. Do some extra penance for him, especially if the matter is grave. "Again I tell you, if two of you join your voices on earth to pray for anything whatever, it shall be granted you by my Father in heaven. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst" (Mt 18: 19-20).

How important for us to pray before we do anything: that means that our help is in the name of the Lord, that all is grace, that we depend totally on God and that everything good in us comes from God and we are fully responsible for all that is bad and evil in us. This also means that we are in need of help and that we cannot live in isolation, that our spiritual growth and even our human maturity takes place through social and communal interactions. We are being formed and shaped into a better person, prepared for heaven. We also come to realise that we have an irreplaceable role to play, that we hold responsible for our Brothers as well, that we have to be our brother’s keeper.

God will ask us, as He asked Cain: "Where is your brother?". Our reply cannot be like that of Cain: "I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? (Gn 4: 9). God wants us to be saviours of one another, the Brother to save his Brother in community; the husband to save his wife and the wife her husband. It is easier perhaps to blame and accuse, condemn and judge, separate or divorce than to save and heal. When we are physically sick we look for a good and experienced doctor; and according to our means we go and choose our doctor. The surgeon may have to cut open certain parts of our body or remove part of the body so that the rest of the body may be healed and saved. The doctor cannot pretend to be merciful and kind fearing to hurt him and so he refrains from operating on a patient who is desperately in need of surgery. The doctor’s intention is not to harm the patient or to kill him but to heal and save and make him feel better.

In our spiritual life there are various kinds of spiritual cancers: dangerous and deadly ones, some of which require long term treatment while some others are in need of surgeries. We may be told to cut off certain useless conversations and gossips, keep away from unhealthy friendships and unedifying behaviours. At times we may require to shorten the hours of sleep or to reduce the quantity of food we consume; at other times it can mean to prolong the hours of work, to improve the quality of prayer etc. We may be asked to be a little more faithful to our community exercises, keeping silence and remain more recollected throughout the day, to be more cheerful, obedient, loving and caring. Failing to recognise and accept the need of a proper cure will result in spiritual death like a cancer patient who refuses treatment.

If forty-five thousand eight hundred and twenty-three priests left their priesthood from the year 1970 to 1995 it is because many of them failed to recognise and acknowledge that they were sick, weak and sinful and that they were in need of spiritual help; instead they allowed their beautiful and noble vocation to die a natural death. The cancer gets into our system like a parasite and eats our body from within little by little causing finally death. So too there are so many spiritual cancers which are spiritual parasites causing spiritual death. First of all it attacks on our prayer life: meditation, examination of conscience, spiritual reading etc. In the beginning we shorten our prayers, then we pray at random, and finally we give up praying totally. Our reason begins to convince us that they are no longer relevant: there are so many people to be helped and many other activities that can be more profitable, useful and meaningful. The end result of such reasoning is disastrous causing terrible spiritual deaths. It is here that we come to realise the importance of fraternal correction, spiritual dialogue, frequent confessions and regular spiritual retreats, all of which not only will weaken our spiritual enemies but make our apostolate a hundred times more useful, fruitful and beneficial.

It is time for us to act, to wake from sleep, to be sober and alert. Our opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith (cf. 1Pt 5: 8-9a).

Let us not be a victim of our own weaknesses, nor fall into the snares of our adversary, the devil, who is prowling around us, nor be blown away by the raging wind of this world. Let us resist all our spiritual enemies, remain solid in faith, which is the basis of our spiritual life, our unfailing hope, which is the driving force and invincible love, which is our goal. May the most beloved Mother of the Lord, after whose example we have consecrated our lives to God, obtain for us in our daily journeying, that lasting joy that Jesus alone can give. Let our life be a continual witness to Jesus’ love, humility and charity. For only a humble person can receive correction and can grow in holiness. Only a humble person can feel grateful to God and to everyone for everything. Let us register ourselves in Jesus’ school of humility and charity and learn each day how to become more and more humble, gentle and grateful. "Come to me all of you who labour and are over burdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my joke, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls" (Mt 11: 28-29).

God bless you.