Today’s Reflection
Gospel:  Lk 17: 1-6
November 13, 2023 | Monday

Today’s Gospel

Jesus said to his disciples, “Scandals will necessarily come and cause people to fall; but woe to the one who brings them about. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck. Truly, this would be better for that person, than to cause one of these little ones to fall.

Listen carefully: if your brother offends you, tell him, and if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he offends you seven times in one day, but seven times he says to you, ‘I’m sorry,’ forgive him.”

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” And the Lord said, “If you have faith, even the size of a mustard seed, you may say to this tree, ‘Be uprooted and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it will obey you.

Today’s Reflection:

Our scripture passage in today’s gospel gives emphasis on scandal, a stumbling block, as the cause of the downfall of man. A stumbling block obstructs the flow of grace and cuts off the relationship between God and man, an event that Adam committed in the Garden of Eden after he had eaten the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, the tree of the first fall. But Christ, the second Adam, has already restored once and for all everything in the Tree of Salvation. Should any one of us fall short of the restored relationship, forgiveness is the antidote provided that is propelled by true faith. Faith presupposes hope and assures one to be ever capable of giving and receiving love, the greatest of the three virtues. / Vulnerasti, 2023