Monday in the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, November 8, 2021

Luke 17:1-6

Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.”  And the Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Here at the parish, tomorrow evening, sixty-two of our young people will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  I will need to concelebrate the Mass during which this will take place and so I will not be able to host the Monday evening Bible Study on the Internet.  We will resume the Bible Study, to which everyone is welcome, next Monday evening at 8:00 PM eastern time, 7:00 PM central time.  Please pray for the faith of these young people and for their families.  

“Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur.”  Sometimes our English translations miss the point of the text in their efforts to simplify their meaning.  Here, the Greek says, “It is impossible that scandals do not come; however, woe to the one through whom they come.”  The Greek word skandala, which I have translated as “scandal”, means “a snare” or “a stumbling-block”.  This understanding, as well as what we read further on, shows that scandal has to do with actions that impede or destroy faith, rather than the too vague “things that cause sin”.  The Lord is warning his followers that such snares and stumbling-blocks will certainly arise during a person’s lifetime and during the history of the Church.  Fellow believers will act like pagans, leaders of the Church will disgrace their office.  This will shake the faith of those whom they should be strengthening.  The wicked, sometimes hiding under clerical clothing, will blaspheme, apostatize,  and encourage others to do so.  They will teach falsehoods.  Their sins will shock people into anger and cause them to wonder if they have been duped all along.  The Lord vividly describes scandal for us: “The sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars of heaven shall be falling down and the powers that are in heaven shall be moved” (Mark 13, 24-25).   These are popes, bishops, priests, deacons, and religious whose sins damage the faith of believers, as the Fathers (such as the Venerable Bede) teach us.  We also see this in Revelation 12:3–4: “And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven diadems. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.”  The devil uses these wicked people as weapons which he hurls at the Church on earth.

“It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”  No punishment can to be too terrible for those who cause scandal to “these little ones”, those with simple faith.  

“Be on your guard!”  The Greek means something more like, “Watch yourself”, that is, fortify yourself against scandal through prayer and through “testing” — as St. Paul says, “Test everything.  Retain what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5, 21).  Also, a study of the Church’s history is helpful.

“If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.”  This is a separate saying from the above.  The Lord here urges us to chide our fellow believers when they sin.  We do so in a way that leads to repentance, so  prudence is required.  Not every time and place is suitable, and not every word we wish to speak is the right one.  If this person sins against us, rather than against another, and then expresses regret and the desire to make up for his actions, then we forgive him.  “And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times, etc.”  The Lord emphasizes the need to forgive by using this expression.

“Increase our faith.”  This is a prayer.  This prayer shows that the Apostles have come along far enough that they know their faith must be increased and that only the Lord can increase it for them.  This is quite extraordinary and we see how they believe that Jesus is more than a man and can intercede for them with Almighty God.  The Lord answers with something like a riddle: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”  The Lord lays out before them the marvels their faith will accomplish even before it comes to full maturity.  He foretells for them the conversion of the Gentiles, who will “uproot” themselves from their former religions and ways of life and “plant” themselves in the fresh waters of grace, through the preaching of the Gospel.

Prayer will enable us to look past the scandals that inevitably occur through men and women who succumb to their fallen human nature, and it will also enable us, through grace, to continue to obey Christ’s commandment to “teach all the nations” (Matthew 28, 19).