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Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,
but woe to the one through whom they occur.
Jesus told his disciples that sin would be difficult to avoid in this life. He understood that they would constantly need to forgive and be forgiven, to rebuke and to amend when rebuked oneself. But it was a separate and more severe category to cause sin in others by scandal oneself. This was something someone charged with spreading the Gospel could easily slip into if they imitated the example of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus hoped to inoculate his followers against this possibility by teaching them to take sin seriously. But it was not the definitive or final word about anyone, unlike the Pharisees for whom it was simply a category to be avoided. Rather it was a condition in which everyone would at times find themselves. Having brothers and sisters of faith who cared about them meant, not that they would have people who would ignore the issues or soften the demands of holiness, but that they would be surrounded by people who would rebuke them because of their love for them. Rebuke was not to be done out of pride or some sense of superiority, but rather from the sense that one would desire the same sort of help and insight oneself if one had hit a stumbling block that was preventing forward progress. We can learn from the approach of the Little Flower to her duty to guide the novices in her community:
Rather than make one single reproach, I would prefer to receive a thousand, yet I feel it is necessary that the task should cause me pain, for if I spoke only through natural impulse, then the soul in fault would not understand its defects and would simply think: "This Sister is displeased, and her displeasure falls on me although I am full of the best intentions."- Saint Therese of Lisieux
Jesus did not foresee sin in the community to a problem that would be easily corrected early on and then not a problem. If that had been the case it might have only been necessary to forgive a brother once or a few times. Seven times would then seem to be the example of someone not making an effort. At a certain point a line would be drawn and people might stop feeling obliged to forgive. But Jesus foresaw that there would be brothers who would struggle, and yet who would keep coming back again and again seeking forgiveness. One who had given up wouldn't keep returning in this way.
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."
The Apostles seemed to realize that the way of living to which Jesus was calling them wasn't going to be easy. Forgiveness was going to chaff against their fleshly tendencies to pride and entitlement. But Jesus assured them that even a small amount of faith would allow them to conquer unforgiveness. Even something as great as a mulberry tree, deeply rooted in their fallen nature, could be uprooted by a command of faith. This sort of transplant was more actually more miraculous than anything merely horticultural.
Faith was the basis which made good growth and spiritual progress possible. Only faith could heal all of the things against which Paul cautioned Titus. Only faith in practice to give rise to goodness, temperance, justice, holiness, and self-control.
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
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