Recursive reflectance in ray tracer not working

for some reason in my ray tracer if I try to limit the number of recursive calls in my ray tracer my reflectance doesn't work.

Here is my reflectance code:

public static int recursionLevel;
public int maxRecursionLevel;
public Colour shade(Intersection intersection, ArrayList<Light> lights, Ray incidenceRay) {
    recursionLevel++;
    if(recursionLevel<maxRecursionLevel){
        Vector3D reflectedDirection = incidenceRay.direction.subtractNormal(intersection.normal.multiply(2).multiply(incidenceRay.direction.dot(intersection.normal)));

        Ray reflectiveRay = new Ray(intersection.point, reflectedDirection);

        double min = Double.MAX_VALUE;
        Colour tempColour = new Colour();

        for(int i = 0; i<RayTracer.world.worldObjects.size(); i++){
            Intersection reflectiveRayIntersection = RayTracer.world.worldObjects.get(i).intersect(reflectiveRay);
            if (reflectiveRayIntersection != null && reflectiveRayIntersection.distance<min){
                min = reflectiveRayIntersection.distance;
                recursionLevel++;
                tempColour = RayTracer.world.worldObjects.get(i).material.shade(reflectiveRayIntersection, lights, reflectiveRay);
                recursionLevel--;
            }

        }

        return tempColour;
    }else{
        return new Colour(1.0f,1.0f,1.0f);
    }

}

If I get rid of the if statement it works, though I run out of memory if I place too many reflective objects. I'm not sure what could be causing this.