Cut It Off

Jesus wants what he paid for and he paid for our freedom…from sin and separation from the Father. He is so adamant that he even gets super dramatic about it in today’s gospel. I love that Jesus resorts to hyperbole to make this very important point because I may or may not be guilty of being a bit dramatic in my own storytelling and now I can just claim that if it works for Jesus it works for me!! He leads in with identity and service giving us the proper place from which to begin all that we do, “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lost his reward.” Belonging to Christ (knowing whose we are), and service in the Name of Jesus is where we start. And when sin creeps into our mission and begins to bend our ear toward lies and things that are not of the Lord, Jesus urges us to get rid of it as permanently as we can, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” I’m sure none of you have done the inventory of body parts that can cause sin and imagining Jesus telling us to “cut it off!” but I have and well, I’ll just leave it at that. Jesus gives us a litany of reasons why it is best to cut the sin out of our lives, “it is better for you to enter into life maimed, crippled, and with one eye, than to be thrown into Gehenna with all your limbs.” And my favorite Jesus point maker today, “it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” Wow…talk about drama! Jesus really wants us to understand that life apart from God, minus a relationship with Christ, and outside of the grace of the Holy Spirit is really a life of slavery and the agony is unquenchable. 

Jesus’ heart for each one of us moves him in such a way that he needs to make this point and make it as clearly and as imperatively as possible. Say no to sin and anything that causes us to sin because sin is separation from God and that means separation from love. Love is the only way we can be free and sin takes us out of love. He doesn’t want heaven without us and so he longs to teach us how to stay in love. His reference to salt is a reference to the fire of the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father, and the Words of Jesus that will keep the salt salty. Salt is used to increase the heat of a fire, but when it loses its essence there is no more increase. We can’t give what we don’t have and that is why Jesus wants us to cut out the things that cut us off from receiving God’s love. God’s love is endless and extravagant, but sin closes us off to receiving that love and then we lose our essence. 

So what are the things that I need to cut off in order to stay in God’s love? What attachments, behaviors, and mindsets continue to steal my freedom? How can I replenish the salt so that I can continue to increase the love of God that is released into the world? As we get closer to Lent, perhaps we can all do an inventory of the things that need to be cut off and focus on the freedom that Jesus wants for all of us. It is well with my soul.  

Reading 1 SIR 5:1-8

Rely not on your wealth;
say not: "I have the power."
Rely not on your strength
in following the desires of your heart.
Say not: "Who can prevail against me?"
or, "Who will subdue me for my deeds?"
for God will surely exact the punishment.
Say not: "I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?"
for the Most High bides his time.
Of forgiveness be not overconfident,
adding sin upon sin.
Say not: "Great is his mercy;
my many sins he will forgive."
For mercy and anger alike are with him;
upon the wicked alights his wrath.
Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
For suddenly his wrath flames forth;
at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
Rely not upon deceitful wealth,
for it will be no help on the day of wrath.

Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6

R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Alleluia SEE 1 THES 2:13

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but as it truly is, the word of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 9:41-50

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,   
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
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,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled   
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. 

"Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."