Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

at the wedding

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.

The thing I like about atheists is their constant challenge of Christians. They seem to say, “Either put up or shut up!”

Our religion does the same thing, but perhaps we don’t notice it so well. During this final month of our liturgical year, as the darkness closes upon us and we remember “death and judgment, heaven and hell” we hear these apocalyptic challenges of Jesus.

Apparently, during its earliest days, Christianity came slowly, even reluctantly, to deal with the reality of sin among us. Our apostles were eager to forgive a lifetime of sin through the Sacrament of Baptism. They were willing to overlook the routine sins that trouble the community. Things like gossip and factionalism could be dealt with by the leaders as the Church gathered for the Eucharist.

But the major sins that really hurt the whole church – especially murder, adultery and apostasy – were simply not acceptable. The miscreant was expelled from the congregation and that was the end of it.

The Letter to the Hebrews spells out that policy:

For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to bring them to repentance again, since they are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt.

Ground that has absorbed the rain falling upon it repeatedly and brings forth crops useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is rejected; it will soon be cursed and finally burned. (Hebrews 6:4-8)

The stakes were too high, the consequences too serious to forgive repeat offenders again and again.

Entering the Church meant abandoning one’s family and friends; and altering one’s habits and customs, one’s financial, familial, social, and sexual relations. It probably meant wearing different clothing as, until modern times, people usually signified their politics, religion, occupation and social caste with their clothing.

When the Church was a small minority caught between gentile pagans and Jewish believers, everyone knew who had gone over to Jesus Christ. There is nothing private about faith or sin. They are and always were public matters. And when one Christian was discovered in sin, the whole community paid the price.

Sin was “recrucifying the Son of God!” There was nothing the Church could do for such people. Saint Paul demanded that his Corinthian disciples excommunicate one scandalous member: you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord. (1 Cor 5:5) Perhaps God would save the fellow, but the Church had to save itself from his contamination.

The prophetic spirit of the scriptures reminds us of the seriousness of sin. If we have developed sacramental/liturgical ways to reconcile the sinner and readmit him to the Church, we should not suppose that sin is not horrible.

Rather, we examine our hearts each day, praying always for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to show us the way of innocence in a morally confusing, deceptive and treacherous world.

Contemplating the Enormity of sin, we will begin to appreciate the astonishing dimensions of God's Mercy.