Standing Strong in Faith The word
scandal comes from the Greek word
skandalon, which in the bible is often translated as
stumbling block. This is because it refers to something that catches you by surprise that metaphorically
knocks you off balance and puts you in danger of falling.
Jesus, for example, uses this word just after warning the apostles that they will be persecuted, saying “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away/stumble [skandalizo]”. The reason this word comes up more than 40 times in the New Testament is that there are many things that can “knock us off balance” when it comes to our faith. The scandals within the Church over the past few decades are examples of these stumbling blocks.
The fact that you are still here to read this bulletin would seem to indicate a certain hardiness to your faith. You have been able to remain standing in the faith in spite of these stumbling blocks in recent years. Nevertheless, it is important that we be ready to endure even more stumbling blocks, because the truth is there will probably never be a day when the Church is totally free from scandal. Just listen to the gospel for this Sunday:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” As we can see, the net of the kingdom of heaven contains not just good fish, but bad fish too, and it won’t be until the last judgment that the bad are finally taken out. And so according to this passage, we should always expect there to be some “bad fish” in the Church.
Throughout the bible, there are numerous other indications of this. Judas, for example, loved money and betrayed Jesus. St. Paul, in his farewell speech, told the presbyters (priests) of the church in Ephesus, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them” (Acts 20:29-30). Evil among the leaders of God’s chosen people were also present before the New Testament Church. Many (though not all) of the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day were evil and yet, according to Jesus, this didn’t do away with their religious authority. He says, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice” (Mt 23:2-3).
If all this is the case, our faith ought to never rest solely on the example of individual church leaders, or else, one day it is likely to get tripped up.
None of this means that we should be indifferent to evil within the Church. On the contrary, we must be vigilant and work hard to fight against it because we have no other ship we can to jump to. Being Catholic is like being in a family. We don’t get to change families if we have a bad uncle. We have to deal with it.
So let’s make sure that our faith is founded on Jesus and his promise to never to let the gates of hell overcome the Church (Mt 16:18). That way, no matter what comes our way, we won’t stumble.