St. Paul reminds us today that the new law given to us by Christ does not mean we go do anything. The old law, the commandments, all of that is summed up in the law of love that Christ has written on our hearts.
It seems, unfortunately, that just as the children of Israel struggled with following the old law, so too do we struggle with the new. We need help from our brothers and sisters in Christ. The prophet Ezekiel was told he was to be a watchman over Israel, but in the Gospel, Christ calls all of his disciples to watch over their brothers and sisters in Christ. He even tells us how: first go to them, if they don’t listen try with witnesses, if they still don’t listen try the Church, and if they persist then we shake the dust off our shoes and treat them as outsiders.
This puts a responsibility on us as Christians: we are called to this task of correction, but reminded always to ensure our own holiness (remove the beam) first and to have compassion in our approach (Galatians: there but for the grace of God go I).
Why are we called to this anyway? Christ’s mission was to recreate what had been destroyed by man’s sin. One of the earliest sins was Cain’s murder of his brother Abel in Genesis 4. When God confronted Cain about this sin Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In this question, Cain betrays the reason for his sin: he does not love his brother, he envies him. Abel served God well, Cain did not. Cain offered poor sacrifice and what he offered, he did so half-heartedly. When Abel was favored by the Lord, instead of repentance, Cain’s envy drove him to murder.
Christ calls us to be watchmen to teach us how to love without envy, and in doing so, we assist him in recreating what Cain and his spiritual heirs destroyed by sin.