Watch, forgive and believe

 Today’s gospel (Luke 17: 1-6) is another of those passages where Jesus gives a series of counsels that complement each other. Today, it is: watch, forgive, and believe!

We watch when we are responsible and live our responsibility fully, especially towards those who depend on us. Jesus is so firm on this point that we get a glimpse of the divine chastisement reserved for those who lead astray the young – better a millstone round his neck. No mercy for them? Well, this warning is God’s mercy. Know the cost of not being responsible. Know the cost of selling out to your worst self.

It is striking then that the next counsel is for mercy: mercy towards your brother who offends you. What these two counsels hold in common is that we must try to put the other first: do our duty towards others (watch!) but forgive them if they do not do their duty towards us. How different would things be if we all acted responsibly as our brother’s keeper and forgave our brothers and sisters when they failed to do us the same courtesy. And courtesy is the right word here because courtesy is the crown of charity and love. Courtesy is the tribute that respect pays to love.

And then comes the final counsel for today: believe! For if we believed as we should and as we are called to be, we would command the elements. The curious thing here is: if we believed with such vehemence, why would we exercise that virtue in such a self-agrandizing way? (“I believe so much, I can rip up this tree by the power of my faith!”) Jesus is again here at His most rabbinical; I image this is a line said with a Nazarene twinkle in the eye and an ironic curl of the lip that fully implies He knows such an act would be the kind of thing His flesh-obsessed disciples would count as impressive!   

In fact, if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we would almost certainly not exercise it in any way other than to honour God by being responsible and forgiving our neighbour. Our faith would know the right measure (and I'm sure it would not involve destruction of the flora!).

Watch, forgive, and believe, therefore. And, in these counsels we will find we are saying ‘yes’ to the Lord in every moment.