In the first reading from the Mass of Tuesday of the 23rd week (yesterday), St. Paul raises concerns that among the Corinthians there seems to have a tendency to not be able to solve problems within their community, rather they have recourse to civil courts among the Gentiles. St. Paul writes
How can anyone of you with the case against another dare to bring it to the unjust for judgment instead of to the only ones?….Can it be that there is not one among you wise enough to be able to settle the case between brothers? (1 Cor 6:1,6)
Now we who live in a very modern, interconnected, and litigious culture, may wonder how we could ever apply such a reading the daily life. So many of our legal, financial, and even social issues most often be resolved in legal settings, to have binding and lasting force. Even selling a car requires legal actions such as title work.
Prescinding from a purely legal application of Paul’s exhortation, what seems most clear is that he is teaching that the Christian community, the Church, should be self-correcting, and self-correcting in a way that the respects subsidiarity. Thus when things get so bad, that one is turning to secular government to solve family issues, and disputes between Christians, there’s been a failure at lower and proper levels properly resolve problems.
Usually it indicates a lack of fraternal correction. Paul speaks elsewhere of this in the 5th chapter of the letter to the Galatians:
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal 6:1)
Thus fraternal correction should be integral to community life within the church, at every level.
Jesus also speaks of fraternal correction, in a way that respects subsidiarity:
If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony 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, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (Matt 18:15-17)
There are many other texts in the Scriptures which deal with the question of fraternal correction, and I have written more on them here Fraternal Correction, an Act of Charity
Essential – For the sake of this blog, there’s no need to repeat all of the scriptures, but only to note the fraternal correction is an essential part of Church life. It takes a little proof to demonstrate that this aspect of Church life suffers many deficiencies in our current time.
But note this, the Church begins at the level of the family. Thus, respecting subsidiarity, the first place in which correction should take place is the family. Parents should correct children and teach them the ways of the Lord clearly and without ambiguity. Siblings should also hold one another accountable as they grow older. Wider family networks should insist upon, and encourage good, proper, decent, and godly behavior.
Broken! Yet, too often, this system of teaching and correction is broken at every level. Before we critique the struggle of the higher levels of the Church to bring correction, we ought honestly admit that our family system, the domestic church, is in great crisis when it comes to proper teaching and correction, accountability, and expectations.
In our zeal to lament the breakdown of discipline and correction in higher levels, such as schools and churches, including church schools, too often we fail to acknowledge that the problems of those levels, indicate significant failure at the lower level of the family that feeds those institutions. Too often, children to come to school and manifest problems from the earliest years with discipline, self-control, attention span, and many deleterious behaviors which cause disruption. Many (not all), children are spoiled, and have not been schooled in proper discipline.
At the adult level in families too there are many behaviors which Catholics rightly expect their clergy to denounce, but many of those same Catholics are unwilling to confront fellow family members or issue any corrections of their own. Clergy are rightly expected to give moral exhortation and teaching, but if these things are not insisted upon, and to some degree enforced at the family level, the insistence of the priest has far less effect.
Nevertheless, clergy can and do have every obligation to speak teach and insist on correct doctrine, and the proper moral behavior that befits a Christian. Catechists and other leaders such as deacons also have obligations in this regard. Ideally, they are reinforcing what is taught effectively at the family level.
When things reach the level of the bishops we are often dealing with a failure at multiple levels. In the case, for example, of the public dissenter inappropriately receiving holy Communion, it may be necessary for the bishop to issue reminders. But one should also ask, does the public dissenter not have a pastor? Has that pastor warned the dissenter not only of the need to stay away from communion, but in some cases, (as in those who vote to fund abortion) to warn them of the strong likelihood that if they die unrepentant they will probably go to hell? Further, does the public dissenter have a family, who raised them? Who taught them the faith, are there no other Catholic siblings that ever warned them or call them back from their confusion and dissension? How has this public dissenter, or public sinner gotten so far off track? Did anyone try to call them back along the way? Did anyone speak to refute their errors?
Hence, while it is clear that the bishops must at times privately (mostly), and in rare cases, publicly correct sinners and dissenters, it should also be clear that to some degree there has been a breakdown in discipline at lower levels where subsidiarity demands there should be primary correction.
It will be admitted that even with all proper levels of family and parish are up and running, there are still some who are stubborn and resist correction.
Hence all of us, at every level: parents, siblings, teachers, pastors, parishes, priests and bishops, must collectively search our souls and accept that fraternal correction is in need of greater emphasis, at every level. All of us must have the courage, to correct one another in humility and love.
St. Paul reminds us that the Christian community should be self-correcting.
One of the great embarrassments and tragedies of our current time is that this aspect of communal life in the Church is often in such disrepair that, as Paul laments, civil authorities often have to step in and resolve what we cannot. Not only does this offend against proper subsidiarity, but it is a disgrace.
But to be clear, is a shared disgrace, and laying blame and only one level or another, fails to realize that this is a collective problem for which we all have some responsibility.
The Word of God is clear, the Christian community, the Church, should be self-correcting. We should not need secular authorities to force us to set our house in order. Fraternal correction, according to St. Thomas, is an act of charity, and every Catholic, at every level can afford to recover a clearer notion, and a greater sense of urgency, about this fundamental task of the Christian community, The Church.