Do you ever get advice from someone who is actually not doing what they are saying to do, or not actually receiving the supposed benefits of the practice they preach? 📣
Christ doesn’t want us to be like the scribes and Pharisees who were like this. They became so wrapped up in the liturgical laws and dietary customs that they lost sight of the whole point of them in the first place: to orient them towards rightly loving and worshiping God.
“Practice and observe whatever [the scribes and the Pharisees] tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men.”—Matthew 23:3-7 (RSVCE)
Christ does not say to refrain from any and all correction of another person. Just be sure you have your own ducks in a row before calling out the one little duckling that’s out of line with your friend’s or family member’s life. 🦆🦆🦆
Even then, when you do feel called to provide correction, exercise the virtue of fortitude to deliver it in the most Christ-like way possible.
If that doesn’t work or you feel it won’t help at all, you can move to the second, higher mode of fortitude, which is that of patient endurance, which would often manifest as praying for the correction of your brother/sister. 🙏
Here is a clip from Visual Bible’s film “Matthew” that presents the same parable from the Gospel of Matthew (where it also shows up) in a humorous, yet still impactful, tone.
