32nd Week, Monday, Nov 7: Titus 1:1-9 / Luke 17:1-6
Titus was made the “overseer” of the Church of Crete. Like the other “pastoral letters” to Timothy, this letter contains Paul’s instructions to organize and govern the local community, particularly with the help of “presbyters” or elders. The “episcopos” of which Paul speaks is not yet the monarchic bishop of several decades later.
It is hard to place the sayings of our Gospel today (Lk 17:1-6) in a coherent context. They rather look like disparate statements about key concerns and messages of Luke: concern for the lowly, the need of forgiving one another, and faith. When Luke speaks about scandal, he is not thinking of giving any bad example, but of obstacles that make people stumble, like Jesus sitting at table with sinners, something totally unacceptable to many Jews. We take the message of forgiveness.
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People who are given the responsibility of teaching and formation have an honourable as well as a tremendous task on their shoulders. But the fundamental requirement is that they must practise what they preach. Whether as parents or teachers or priests, they form and teach others by their example, especially the young. The young may not listen to words of wisdom, but they will surely observe our actions and examples. It is by our actions and examples that they form their character and habits in life. So, it is from us adults that the young learn how to forgive or how to be revengeful, how to love or how to hate, how to be generous or how to be selfish. If the young learn from us either the good or the bad, then we as Christians can also be a source of inspiration or a source of scandal to others. For that reason, St. Paul urged Titus in the 1st reading to choose church leaders carefully. It is by their life and example that they lead and teach.
In the gospel Jesus also told us to watch ourselves and to be aware of our actions and examples. We also must realize that our actions and examples flow from our hearts, and Jesus must be there, in our hearts. So, if Jesus is not there then our actions and examples are leading others nowhere.
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Prayer
God of mercy and compassion, your Son Jesus Christ, has brought us together as a community of sinners that knows that you have pardoned us. When our weaknesses threaten our unity, remind us of our responsibility for one another. Let your unifying Spirit give us the strength to care for one another and to do all we can to remain a living, forgiving and welcoming community. May we meet in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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Saint Willibrord
Feast Day November 7
Willibrord set out with 11 disciples for the Netherlands. They became missionaries to the Frisians. On the way back from Denmark he was shipwrecked on Heligoland, an island controlled by Radbod. There he confronted pagan superstitions by slaughtering sacred animals and by loudly baptizing three people in a pool where absolute silence was required. To appease his god, an angry Radbod martyred one of Willibrord’s party. Then the king summoned Willibrord and upbraided him.
The king demanded to know why he had violated their sacred places and insulted their god. The herald of truth answered him with steady courage: “O king, you do not adore God but the devil. He has foully deluded you so that he can thrust your soul into everlasting fire. For there is no God but one. He created sky, earth, sea, and everything that is in them. Whoever worships him with true faith will have life forever. I urge you finally to renounce that foolish delusion of your ancestors, and to believe in the one Almighty God and Our Lord Jesus Christ. I call on you to be baptized in the font of life and wash away all your sins. Then with all wickedness and wrongdoing cast away from you, you may live as a new man in all reasonableness, righteousness and holiness. If you do this you will win an eternal life of glory with God and his saints. But if instead you reject the path of salvation, then be most assured that you will suffer eternal tortures and hellish flames along with the devil to whom you pay court.”
Astounded, the king replied: “I see that you truly had no fear of our threats, and that your words match your deeds.” Although he refused to believe in the truth that Willibrord preached, still he respectfully sent him back to Pepin.
In 715, Radbod regained Lower Frisia and temporarily undid much of Willibrord’s work. However, after the king’s death in 719, Willibrord with the aid of Boniface repaired the damage. In his remaining years he planted the church there so firmly that he earned the title “Apostle of the Frisians.” Willibrord died in 739 on retreat at Echternach, Luxembourg, a monastery that he had founded.
