From the Gospel according to Saint Mark
Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
One of the problems in the Church today is the attraction some people feel toward various sects or beliefs. We Catholics often strive to challenge their false teachings. This is a good practice if our goal is truly the truth, but we cannot deny that there are some who are sincerely spreading the Gospel of the Lord. Our Gospel today talks about St. John’s confession to Jesus, where he tells Him about a man driving out demons in His name. He wanted to stop the man because he wasn’t part of their group. But Jesus responds that anyone who performs a good deed in His name will not be able to speak ill of Him. Jesus then continues by speaking about two important points.
First, the encouragement of others to sin. Filipinos have a mentality of "pak one, pak all" which means that if one person makes a mistake, it seems everyone else should follow suit. Sometimes, this is seen in social media, or even in gossip, where the intention is to expose others' faults, hoping to attract others to share the same anger. It is right to expose wrongdoing if the goal is to bring it to light, it is right to be angry at wrongdoing if we are encouraging reflection that leads to repentance, it is most right to pray for those at fault because the Lord says, "Love your enemies as yourself and pray for those who persecute you." But if we don’t reflect on this, we may become comfortable in sinning because of the mentality that it’s not just me, but also them, we’re all in this together.
Second, the consequences of sin. We have a saying, "Regret always comes last." Jesus says that it would be better for someone to have a large millstone tied around their neck and be thrown into the sea than for them to cause others to sin. He also says that it’s better to live without the parts of our body that cause us to sin. Here, we can feel Jesus' strong opposition to sin. It’s sad to think that sometimes, sin becomes so regular for us that we simply ask for forgiveness afterward. As St. Augustine said, "True repentance is to cease sin." At times, because we fail to reflect on our words and actions toward those we have wronged, we may be the reason for their sinful behavior.
We know that at the end of our lives, we will be judged. We shouldn’t wait until it’s too late to regret our actions. It’s just and right that we avoid sin in thought, word, and deed while we are still in this world.
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