Jesus’ words on the duty of fraternal correction have always been challenging, but they are particularly demanding today.
We live in a culture, especially among the young, that thinks the greatest value is to be “nice.” Many believe that we really should never correct anyone else, because that would make us seem “judgmental,” “offensive” or “harsh.” They assert it’s important to be “civil,” to agree to disagree, to live and let live, to mind our own business, and to be tolerant of everything except the traditional Christian values that woke elements in our culture consider intolerable.
But this mentality comes from a lack of lack of love, a failure of fortitude, and a shortage of seriousness about the harm sin really does. If we really care for a person, we will have the guts, love and maturity to intervene, because we know that sin wounds the individual, wounds others, and wounds the love of God.
Some people try to justify a failure to live this teaching on fraternal correction by pretending that “love of neighbor” means precisely not admonishing but rather “accepting” the person and rubber stamping whatever choices the person makes. When we look at Jesus’ example in the Gospel, however, we see that, even though he was “kind and merciful” (Ex 34:6; Ps 103:8; Ps 145:8) and “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29), he was certainly not “nice” and “tolerant” as the world uses these terms today.
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