Be on your guard!
Jesus called his disciples not only to guard against individuals sins, but also against attitudes that could lead the community of the faithful into sin. One big potential problem was that of scandal, or "[t]hings that cause sin", as the NAB translates it. Scandal in the biblical sense was an example of sinfulness that could lead others into sin. Insofar as all of us are called to be examples to others we all have the potential to give scandal. So we must guard against sin not only for our own sake but also for the sake of those who learn by watching us.
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.
Jesus realized that scandal was inevitable to some degree since his Church was founded on sinful and imperfect people. To help address this he built into his Church the mutual concern and responsibility of her members for one another.
Be on your guard!
If your brother sins, rebuke him;
and if he repents, forgive him.
Scandal must be rebuked. It must be identified as the sin it is in order that it not lead little ones to sin. There are various levels at which this rebuke is appropriate, as we learn in the Gospel of Matthew. We do not all at once broadcast a rebuke that is meant to begin between brothers to the nation or the world.
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector (see Matthew 18:15-17).
The rebuke of scandal must be accompanied by a desire and readiness to forgive. The goal of rebuke is not to push the sinner even further away but to gain the brother back again. The unwillingness of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son to welcome the back the younger and to forgive him could have been the cause of the hardening of the heart of the younger had it not been for the unconditional welcome he received from his father. We are not called to smug self-righteousness in regard to sin. We are called to have the heart of the father of the prodigal son, ready to run out to meet anyone even remotely interested in receiving forgiveness.
And if he wrongs you seven times in one day
and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,'
you should forgive him.
If we skip any part of the prescription offered by Jesus sin will have an easier time taking root around us. We must first take care that we ourselves live as examples worthy of imitation did Saint Paul himself. He insisted that a good example was a necessary characteristic of those chosen to be bishops and presbyters.
appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you,
on condition that a man be blameless,
married only once, with believing children
who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious.
For a bishop as God's steward must be blameless, not arrogant,
not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive,
not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness,
temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled,
holding fast to the true message as taught
so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine
and to refute opponents.
We, like Paul, and like Jesus himself, must be ready to call sin what it is. Yet we must be careful not to push sinners themselves away as though we were somehow better than them. We must maintain a posture that is ready, waiting, and even longing to reestablish them by forgiveness, knowing that we and they both depend on the same mercy and grace. It comes down to the truism of loving the sinner (which, if we do not do, will result in our inability to love even ourselves) while hating the sin. It means hating the sin enough not to ignore it but loving the sinner enough not to abandon them. The disciples were honest in recognizing that this was not their natural disposition.
And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
The response of Jesus to the disciples about faith the size of a mustard seed seemed to imply that the disciples needed not so much a new miracle of faith to forgive, but rather, a willingness to use the small faith they already had to do so. They had a worldly belief that forgiveness might be difficult or impossible. But Jesus taught them that they had enough faith to believe that it was in fact possible, not for them alone, but for them aided by God for whom all things are possible.
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."
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