November 12, 2018 Monday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time-B ST. JOSAPHAT, BISHOP AND MARTYR

Titus 1:1-9

Psalm 24

Luke 17:1-6

“Increase our faith.”  Lk. 17:5

Lord, your Apostles had been with you for a while.  They had marveled at your miracles and heard all of your teaching.  I sense at this point in their journey with you they were beginning to feel very challenged and somewhat uncertain about how their future would turn out.  Today you warn them of the dangers of sin, especially causing someone else to sin.   Throwing someone into the sea with a huge stone around their neck because of sin is a dramatic image of the seriousness of scandalizing someone else.  It puts the responsibility for good behavior and giving good example squarely on our shoulders.   We share in the obligation to look out for those we may influence or lead.  “Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t cut it.  So they beg you for faith in the grace necessary to see them through temptation and to resist the allure of sin.  Lord, I beg you for the same increase in faith and trust in your help to have, as the Psalm says, “hands that are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.”   Amen.