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The Gospel for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, shows Jesus denouncing sin in the strongest possible terms. It’s no wonder: The world has been destroyed by sin and the Church has been shipwrecked by it — in fact, by men and women who were taught to sin as children.
But Jesus also gives a giant promise of hope for our future.
Fully 60% of the words in this Sunday’s Gospel passage are Jesus warning of harsh, dire consequences for sin.
Jesus says, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna.” He says the same thing about your feet and your eyes.
This is Semitic hyperbole; it doesn’t mean you should literally maim yourself. But it does mean that it is better to be a blind quadruple-amputee than to be committed to sin. It also means that you should eliminate anything in your life that draws you toward sin, be it your laptop, liquor, or your lifestyle — your friends, pass-times, or secret addictions.
Doctors amputate a limb in order to save the body. We have to amputate sin to save our soul. But we often do the opposite: We amputate our soul to save our sin.
Jesus describes where that will lead us — “to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” This is hell, which as described by Jesus Christ is a place where we are tortured from within, as if by a worm eating our soul, and tormented from outside, as if by fire that scorches us without burning us up, forever.
Continued below.
But Jesus also gives a giant promise of hope for our future.
Fully 60% of the words in this Sunday’s Gospel passage are Jesus warning of harsh, dire consequences for sin.
Jesus says, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna.” He says the same thing about your feet and your eyes.
This is Semitic hyperbole; it doesn’t mean you should literally maim yourself. But it does mean that it is better to be a blind quadruple-amputee than to be committed to sin. It also means that you should eliminate anything in your life that draws you toward sin, be it your laptop, liquor, or your lifestyle — your friends, pass-times, or secret addictions.
Doctors amputate a limb in order to save the body. We have to amputate sin to save our soul. But we often do the opposite: We amputate our soul to save our sin.
Jesus describes where that will lead us — “to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” This is hell, which as described by Jesus Christ is a place where we are tortured from within, as if by a worm eating our soul, and tormented from outside, as if by fire that scorches us without burning us up, forever.
Continued below.
This Sunday, Jesus Points to Horrible Shame — and Enormous Hope
The Church needs to hear Jesus’s harsh words about sin and abuse — but also about our legacy of love.
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