November 7, Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Titus 1:1-9 and Luke 17:1-6
It is one thing to sin. It is another thing to cause someone to sin. The latter is of a bigger magnitude.
This is what today’s Gospel tells us. Sadly, many of us today are either wittingly or unwittingly serve as instruments for others to fall into sin. We are not only accomplice to sin. We pave the way for one to sin.
What are the circumstances when we cause someone to sin?
First, we can cause someone to sin directly. When we encourage someone – a friend, a sibling, a workmate, an acquaintance or even a stranger, to do something bad disguised as good, we are leading someone to sin.
Second, we can also cause someone to sin indirectly by our actions or inactions. A teacher who doesn’t call the attention of students who cheat or bully others, a parent who does not teach his or her child the ways of God, a friend who tolerates the vices of his or her friend or someone who does not lift a finger despite his or her knowledge of the evil that is happening are indirect ways of being instruments for someone to commit sin.
We are culpable when someone sins through us. The Gospel today makes that very clear. This reminds us of our Christian mission to be evangelizers to our brethrens. That through us, they may also long for and see God’s face.
The first reading also speaks of this call ‘to set right what remains to be done’. This is a very fitting reminder for all of us Catholics to live our faith, to witness to our faith wherever we are, whatever state of life we are in. How sad it is when our faith is only lived inside the Church.
We are all called to be witnesses of the faith that we profess in our day-to-day conduct, in our words, in our deeds, in every situation we are in and with whomever we are with. We should be Catholics to each other at home. We should be Catholics to our neighbors and even to strangers. We should be Catholics at work, in our society. It is our character. It is our mark. It is our calling.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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