Saturday of the 32nd Week

1 Thessalonians 5:14-23

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Luke 17:3-10

Pay attention 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, saying, ‘I repent’, you must forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you. “Will any one of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterwards you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

Both the Gospel and Epistle today open with a call for us to admonish and rebuke those who have fallen into sin. If we saw someone fall and injure themselves, love would demand that we help them back up. And so it is with sin. If we see a brother sinning, either against us or in some other way, we do not abandon them to their sin, but love demands that we rebuke and admonish them to bring them back to salvation. Matthew's Gospel adds that "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" (18:15-17). This is a last resort. St. Paul says elsewhere, "If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed," but adding also "Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother" (2 Thess. 3:14-15). In other words, even such extreme measures should only be an act of brotherly love and concern, never of malice or anger. Indeed, we see in today's Epistle that the call to admonish is joined with an exhortation to encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, and be patient with them all. Before all this, however, the Lord says: Pay attention to yourselves! We should first and foremost be mindful of our own sins and weaknesses, and be careful not to confuse admonishing and correcting with judging and condemning. We have all heard these words: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matt. 7:3-5).

The same goes for forgiveness. Even if someone sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent', you must forgive him. The number seven in the Bible denotes completion. In other words, however many times you are wronged, you must forgive. We should never repay anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. In the Lord's Prayer, which we say several times a day, we ask God to "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." If we do not forgive every time we are wronged, neither will we receive forgiveness from our sins against God which are countless: Pay attention to yourselves! 

The disciples, recognising their own weaknesses and the difficulty of what the Lord is requiring of them, ask Him to strengthen their faith. On the one hand, He recognises that they have asked rightly - for such things are only possible with the help of God- and speaks about the importance and power of faith. On the other hand, however, He points out to them that what He is asking of them is not some great wonder, but simply their duty. As we heard in the Epistle on Thursday, "whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." However, to do the right thing is not a cause for pride or boasting, but is just doing what's expected of us: when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty. Likewise St. Paul tells us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, simply because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. There is a lot that could be said about unceasing prayer,* but, in connection with what has already been said, I'll limit myself to saying that we are called to pray unceasingly, that is to be in constant communion with God, because that is our natural state, that is who we're supposed to be. As such, we should not regard these things as being too difficult or out of our reach, nor should we ever feel proud were we to attain them, but, as being in communion with God is our natural state, nor must we never think that they can be reached without Him. We must therefore join the disciples in praying, Increase our faith! in order that the God of peace himself may sanctify us completely, and keep our whole spirit and soul and body blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

* A short introductory article on the subject of unceasing prayer can be found here.