Scripture quotations are from the RSV unless otherwise noted.
"And he said to his disciples, ‘Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin'" (Luke 17:1-2).
Jesus warns us today of the wickedness of causing others to sin. This is such a serious evil that Jesus says that it would be better if such a person were killed than that he should live and cause others to sin. It would be better "if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin" (Luke 17:2).
So serious is temptation that not only would it be better for the one who causes it to be drowned, but even if our own eye causes us to sin by what we see, we should pluck it out, for it is better to get to heaven missing an eye than to go to hell with both eyes. "Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes! ... If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire" (Matthew 18:7, 9).
What kind of temptation and what kind of sin is Jesus talking about? In another context Jesus mentions adultery of the heart in connection with plucking out our eye. "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell'" (Matthew 5:27-29).
So serious does Jesus consider adultery of the heart that he says that the strongest measures must be taken to prevent it, and the greatest sacrifices must be made to avoid it. He even recommends plucking out the offending eye and cutting off the offending hand, a hyperbolic expression meaning that no sacrifice is too great to make if it will keep us from falling into this sin.
Basically there are two sources that Jesus mentions that bring us this temptation: 1) other people, and 2) ourselves. Other people cause us to commit adultery of the heart by the way they dress and present themselves. Jesus says that it would be better if people who do this be drowned. Then we ourselves, by looking at these people, are the other cause leading us to commit this sin. The solution to that problem is to pluck out your eye so that you can't see them; that is, stop looking at them.
We see that Jesus is very strict and serious about sin. Why? Because sin separates us from God, our lifeblood, the source of all our life and happiness, and it will ultimately send us to hell, and prevent us from realizing the purpose for which we were created. This is what sin does to us. We should therefore make great sacrifices to avoid temptations to sin. Certainly plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand is a great sacrifice. Although Jesus doesn't want us to actually pluck out our eye or cut off our hand, he does want us to resolutely turn our back on temptations to sin, on occasions that divide our heart from an undivided love of the Lord alone.
How do we deal with other people's sins against us? We should rebuke them for their sin. This will help them to see that they have sinned and need to repent; and then if they repent, we are to forgive them. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, ‘I repent,' you must forgive him" (Luke 17:3-4). This is the logic of the gospel: sin, rebuke, repentance, and forgiveness. This we must do in our own personal life as well as in our pastoral ministry.
This is also the way God deals with us when we sin. His word and his voice in our conscience rebuke us for our sin, and we feel guilty and depressed because we have sinned and soiled our beautiful relationship with God - even in small sins. We have dimmed or extinguished the splendor of God's righteousness in us, reckoned to us because of our faith in Christ.
This leads us to repent in sorrow for our sin before God and beg his forgiveness, especially within the sacrament of reconciliation, which Christ has given us for this purpose (John 20:23). When we repent we are to entrust ourselves to the reparation-making merits of Christ's vicarious death on the cross to atone for our sins, propitiating God's righteous wrath against us for them by expiating them in his death, whereby he bore and suffered our punishment for them to set us free from it, acquitted, and declared righteous by God, thus reconciling us with him. Thus do we receive God's forgiveness, and his glorious righteousness is restored to us.
So we have gone from sin to rebuke to repentance to forgiveness. We need all these steps. We cannot leave out repentance. Someone who has no intention whatsoever of stopping committing his sin, cannot expect to receive forgiveness from God. It is false mercy and deception to tell people otherwise just to make them feel good and welcome in the Church.
If someone is living in a publicly proclaimed open state of constant mortal sin, he can only be given forgiveness and sacramental absolution if he first repents and stops committing this sin. "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3) so that we could be forgiven in all justice and declared righteous by God; but for this to happen, we must put our trusting faith in him and repent of our sin by stopping committing it. When we stop committing this sin and repent, our faith is counted to us as righteousness, and God reckons his own perfect righteousness to us, blotting out our sin and forgiving us. God the judge pronounces us righteous, because of what Christ did for us on the cross, when we put our faith in him, repenting of our sin and promising to amend our life.
This is how God justly forgives our sins and makes us righteous in his sight. Those who have not stopped committing their sin and have no intention whatsoever of amending their life have not truly repented and no justification or forgiveness takes place in them. They remain in their sin, by their own free choice. Therefore sacramental absolution cannot be given to them nor may they receive the Eucharist, as long as they obstinately persist in grave and publicly proclaimed sin.
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