Daily Catholic Reflection (11/7/2022)

Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

St. Florian being thrown into the river Enns with a millstone tied around his neck.

Readings: Ti 1:1-9; Ps 24:1b-2, 3-4ab, 5-6; Lk 17:1-6

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There are many promises our Lord gives us. In today’s reading, we learn that one of those promises is temptations to sin are sure to come. However, Christ doesn’t follow up this promise with how we can be reconciled to him; instead, he talks about how we should be reconciled to each other. 

Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.

In the Christian journey, we quite often, and clumsily, examine our conscience to gauge how well we are aligned with God’s will. In that examination, we must look at our forgiveness of others. If we are to be like Christ, then this includes limitless forgiveness. 

This may initially sound like an invitation for abuse cart blanche or merely being a doormat. But our Lord is not calling us to be naive or willfully vulnerable. He’s calling us to be like him. To seek justice, not revenge; to seek truth, not gossip; to seek peace, not strife. The dividing line between these competing desires is found in humility over pride, charity over hate, and, like in today’s reading, forgiveness over resentment.

We may find ourselves responding to our Lord the same way the apostles did when they heard this teaching; the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”