BE ON YOUR GUARD!

Tt 1,1-9; Ps 23; Lk 17,1-6
12 NOVEMBER

The Christian must be careful with himself. It is Jesus’ command. His disciples must be perfect in everything. The rule that St. Paul applied to himself applies to them.

We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in a holy spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left; through glory and dishonour, insult and praise. We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things (2Cor 6,2-10).

But there is a great deal of attention that they have to pay and it concerns both the active and the passive scandals. The active scandal is the transgression of the Word of the Lord made publicly, before one or more people. Today certain scandals go beyond one’s own home, one’s own parish, one’s own diocese and the same nation. Mass-Media takes possession of them and the whole world knows about them. Only one Christian scandal can prevent half the world from reaching true faith in Christ Jesus. Seeing Christians that divorce, practice abortion, abandon themselves to euthanasia, live by union between the same sexes, steal, kill, rape, say false witness, commit adulterers and have even lost the sense of morality, no one will ever be converted to Christ Jesus. He will judge his religion better, if not even quite perfect. St. Paul asks Christians to avoid even the scandal, said of the little ones. It is an action in itself good before God and consequently before one’s conscience. But, still, it is not good before the conscience of the younger brothers in the faith. For the salvation of the brother, even from this scandal we must be careful. The rule of truth and justice is not our conscience, but that of our brother.

The passive scandal is also very dangerous for the Christian. Listening and seeing, little by little he could convince himself that the thought of the world is the true, just and holy one. Today the whole Christian world no longer thinks from the Gospel, but from the world. Since everything in the world is morally indifferent, even for Christians everything is becoming morally indifferent. But an even more serious affair, everything is justified as God’s will. It is declared that God is beyond his public revelation, beyond the Gospel, beyond the ancient sound doctrine and beyond the very dogmas. If one wants to believe in all that is ancient, he neither can nor must. He is accused of being a traditionalist or of being fundamentalist. Today, the thought of God is the thought of the world and the thought of the world is the thought of God. This is the power of the passive scandal. Today, its power has increased dramatically. Who does not keep the heart in the Gospel, is immediately overwhelmed by it.

He said to his disciples, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person 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.

The most pure faith in Christ is withdrawing more and more from our land. Can we do anything to give it new life and new vigour? Whoever believes, let him have the strength to believe.

Most Chaste Virgin, Angels and Saints, free Christians from every active and passive scandal.