Sunday’s first reading from the prophet Ezekiel shows that Jesus’ teaching about communal correction builds on a long tradition of belief that God’s prophets and God’s people have a duty to speak out against wickedness and to try to turn wrongdoers from their ways. The reading also brings to mind a statement from Justice in the World, a document issued by the 1971 Synod of Bishops:
“Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”
Warn the wicked.
The word of God came to Ezekiel: So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
If I say to the wicked, “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.
But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
Ezekiel 33.7-9
- What injustices in your neighborhood or civic community do individuals and groups need to work together to correct?