You are a Watchman (Sunday, Week 23, Year A)

Some homes or factories have a detachment usually called a guardhouse or guard post or watchtower or most commonly called a security post: a place where a watchman or a sentry often stays. Often, it is built in such a way that it should be very easy for the security man or the watchman to have a clearer and better view of the surroundings especially outside the building so that if there is any security threat, he would be able to spring into action, alert or send warning signs to those in the house. With the invention of CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras, modern technologies have made it even much easier: you can stay where you are and keep watch. 

In the first reading (Ezekiel), God clearly told Ezekiel the prophet, “I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel: whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If you do not warn the evil man to change his ways and if he dies in his iniquity, I will hold you responsible. But if you warn him and he does not change, you have saved your life”. I don’t know how Ezekiel received this message, considering the fact that amongst those to whom he was sent, there were kings, religious leaders, aristocrats, the who-is-who (crème de la crème) in the society, those older than him, his contemporaries, friends or allies, his own people, those who will say to him “DON’T JUDGE ME”, and even those he might not know. But to all of them, he had a responsibility to correct and call to order if any goes out of track. In fact, this very prophetic responsibility is mentioned in the beginning of the book of Ezekiel (3:17) and is being repeated in chapter 33:7-9. This is to show that this very responsibility is a core mandate of a prophet. We see how difficult it is to be a prophet! Please, take note of something in that reading: that very task of calling people to order is not just to be done for the GOOD OF THE PERSON BEING CORRECTED but for the SALVATION OF THE ONE GIVING THE CORRECTION: “if you warn him and he does not change, you will have saved your life”.

Where do I find myself here? Do I see myself as a prophet? Or as one of those to whom prophets are sent? By the virtue of our baptismal consecration, I am a prophet; you are a prophet; we are prophets. Prophets to who? Prophets to one another! So, what it means is that we are responsible for each other: we have an utmost responsibility of offering corrections or sending a warning to anyone who does not get it right. And this is not just something we do for the salvation of that very person; but also for our own salvation. But it must be done with love! In the second reading (cf. Romans 13:8-10), St Paul says, “Owe no one anything except to love one another. And love does no wrong to a neighbour”. So, the very act of correcting an errant brother or a sister so that he or she changes his or her way is a pure act of love.

In the gospel reading (cf. Matthew 18:15-20), Jesus tells us how we can go about this: first, go to the person and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he does not listen, take one or two other people along with you. If he does not listen to you, tell it to the Church; and if he refuses to listen to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. We know that the Gentiles and the tax collectors were seen as enemies of the Jews. Now, does it mean that you have to treat the person as an enemy? Or be indifferent to the person? Or what? How did Jesus himself treat Gentiles and tax collectors? In Mark 2:15, we are told that he dined with the tax collectors; he treated them with love, not as outcasts. How did He treat the Samaritan woman in John 4 and the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28? He treated them with love. So, when Jesus says, “if your brother or sister refuses to even listen to the Church, treat him or her as a Gentile or a tax collector”, what He means is that he or she should be treated with love. This is one of those statements that make the Christian life very difficult!     

Christianity is not as easy as many of us understand it to be. As it is said in Ghana, “Christianity is not sugar in my koko and butter on my bread”. It is a life of sacrificial love, forbearance and tolerance. When you continue to fire those prayers of destruction by fire for your perceived human enemies or those who do you wrong or those you think should not exist or those you don’t like, you don’t understand the life you have embraced. If you really understand the Christian life and obligations, you will never pray that God should destroy your human enemies. Please take note: God pays no attention to those useless prayers.