The Church must always heed the readings of Monday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time (Year II) as the First Reading (Titus 1:1-9) addresses the quality of the Church leadership and the Gospel Reading (Luke 17:1-6) warns danger of corruption, especially caused by the Church leadership. The expectation is that leaders of the Church are to demonstrate their pastoral leadership competence. This includes exercising competencies to confront, address, and judiciously resolve problems in their diocesan jurisdictions.
For this, Paul addresses necessary qualification for Church leadership to Titus, whom he installs as bishop of Creta through these words:
For this reason I left you in Crete so that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you, on condition that a man be blameless, married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious. For a bishop as God’s steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents (Titus 1:5-9).
Paul puts Titus in charge of appointing πρεσβυτέρους (presbyterous) in Crete to set up church there. Presbyters are often translated in English as “elders” and it is the leadership under bishop (ἐπίσκοπος/episkopos) and above deacons (διάκονος/diakonos). Namely, presbyters are priests. Therefore, as bishop, Titus is in charge of ordaining priests in establishing a diocese in Creta.
The guideline for priesthood is that it is a man who is blameless, chaste, and his family is obedient to the Church authorities and free from a scandal.
Paul also describes necessary character for a bishop (episkopos) , whom he describes as a steward of God. This higher pastoral leader is a man who is blameless, humble, even-tempered, sober, gentle, altruistic, hospitable, found of goodness, just, moderate, composed, and steadfast to the truth passed from Christ through the Apostles. This qualifies him to encourage the faithful to remain in Christ with sound doctrine of the Church and refute enemies of the Church. In other words, bishop’s pastoral leadership is greater than that of priests, as he is the primary defender of all the faithful whom he pastors against those who oppose the Church. The opponents of the Church are those who bring scandals in the Church, including those who cause the faithful to sin and confuse them with heresies. Not to mention, those who abuse and prey on God’s children are great opponents to be refuted by bishop’s pastoral leadership.
In the Gospel Reading (Luke 17:1-6), Jesus offers pastoral advice in regard to dealing with scandals in the Church (vv.1-4) and increasing faith (vv. 5-6).
Jesus knows that we are not perfect and therefore we sin. However, he sharply criticizes those who cause others to sin (Luke 17:1-2), enticing and tempting them to fall, as Satan did to Eve, and as Eve did to Adam (Genesis 3:1-6). According to Jesus, those who cause scandals in the Church are subject to due judgement. However, it is not us to impose judgement but God. Our task is to confront scandals and work on corrections. We are to encourage and guide those who caused troubles in the Church to repent but not to judge (Luke 17:3-4). For this, we must increase our faith (Luke 17:5-6). And Church leaders make sure that scandals are confronted and refuted accordingly as there is no tolerance to it. And their pastoral leadership guides the faithful to increase their faith so that they can resist temptations and enticement of Satan and those who try to cause scandals.
In nut shell, the pastoral leaders, bishops (episkoposes), priests (presbyterouses), and deacons (diakonoses), must faithfully exercise their respective pastoral competencies to foster the growth of faith in their dioceses, to protect dioceses against scandals, and to confront and resolve problems in their diocesan jurisdictions. For their competence, their personal qualities must be as described by Paul (Titus 1:5-9).
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