Does Jesus really want you to cut off your hand or your foot, or pluck out your eye? Not really, but he is making a really good point.
Watch the homily on our YouTube channel by clicking here,
or if you want to see the whole Mass, you can check it out here.
It is truly a gift to live in a different country and in a different culture for a number of years. One gains a great appreciation for one’s own country but you also get introduced to some really fun cultural practices of your host country. One of my favorite Italian customs is how certain parts of the country celebrate the coming of the new year. I had been told not to be out on the street at the stroke of midnight, but I was not told why. Being curious, I found a nice, sheltered place to observe what might go on. Sure enough, as soon as the new year rang in all kinds of things came flying out of the windows of the apartments, to explode into a million pieces as they hit the pavement. Toasters and mixers and power tools and computers and all manner of household items plunged to their ignominious deaths on the cobblestones below.
I found out later that it is the custom in those parts that if some household item has been giving you fits throughout the past year, at the end of the year you simply throw it out the window along with all the stress that it has caused you. Thus, you can begin the new year cleansed of the little demon that has plagued you so and renewed in spirit. It’s fun!
This is essentially what Jesus is getting at in this week’s gospel passage. Our Lord liked to grossly overexaggerate to drive his point home. Here he does it regarding sinful tendencies. Does he really want you to cut off your hand? No, but the hand is for doing. If you find yourself doing things you shouldn’t, then get those things out of your life. Does he really want you to cut off your foot? No, but we go where we tell our feet to take us. If you find yourself going to places you shouldn’t, perhaps you need to get that place out of your life. Does he really want you to pluck out your eye? No, but the eye is for seeing. If you find yourself looking at things you shouldn’t perhaps you need to get those things out of your life (and off your phone).
Like the coming of the new year, a change of seasons is a good time to make adjustments in our habits our, attitudes, even the configuration of our household. Is there something in your life that has been giving you trouble and keeping you from following Christ with your whole heart and soul and strength? Now is a good time to “throw it out the window” and begin anew.
Great idea