St. John the Baptist Church recently issued the following announcement.

Mt. 18, 15-20

V.15…“If your brother* sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.

With so many sins committed, what shall we do? Will it be the spur of the moment…anger…an eye for an eye…a tooth for a tooth? It is not enough that we enumerate the sins committed rather we are obliged to help our brethren to improve their lives and not fall into the same sins again. -let us assure our brothers and sisters of the following;

1. Hate the sins and love the sinner…this is not to condone his act neither to be a consenting adult to the sinner…it should be clear that we could draw a demarcation line between these two realities…for the sin, it is justice…for the sinner, we offer forgiveness.

2. Your sins are not your death sentence but lessons to learn from…at times because of the pain the sins may have caused us, we easily shut the door of improving oneself and that’s what we call death sentence. Always open the door of the gift of chance to prove once more that he can do good…he can be good again. You can only open the door of the gift of chance when you free yourself from the pain of the sins he did to you.

3. The negative side of life is never a topic to be discussed in facebook (modern media) neither to be narrated to other people. Rather, it is a topic between you and the person concerned. Thus, discuss the matter to that person directly. We are not helping the person grow when we broadcast his faults…we are just putting him down and that recovery and improvement would be hardly realized.

4. Lastly, pray and forgive that person…the starting point of coming back to the fold of God…a new life.

Original source can be found here.