Thursday February 27, 2014
7th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Jas 5:1-6
Gospel: Mk 9:41–50
If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear his name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward.
If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.
If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out. And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot than with both feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out. For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The harshness of Jesus’ proposals (which fortunately for us are not to be taken literally) emphasizes the degree of the culpability of those who lead others to evil and measures the seriousness that Jesus attaches to sin. St. Augustine wrote: “Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum”, loosely translated as God loves the sinner but hates the sin (Letter 211). This may no longer be true when the sinner dedicates his life to the destruction of others, seeking out his victims “like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”. In so doing he steps into the shoes of Satan and assumes the person of the devil.
We may not be committing very serious sins as to deserve mutilation and we may not be the type that leads others to sin as to deserve being thrown into the sea. But if we are neither leading anyone to God what makes us more deserving of heaven when we are supposed to be our brothers’ keepers? (Genesis 4:8-10). Heaven is for those who go beyond the four corners of their churches and prayer rooms. Said another way, performance of ritual as key to salvation is a religious fiction; it is valid only when pleasing to God. Since it is God’s pleasure that we love one another (John 13:34-35), lack of concern for others renders the rituals we perform detestable. In such a situation fiction yields to reality and our spirituality must be declared fake.
When fake spirituality becomes too notorious and glaring as to lead others to sin, Jesus’ proposal is unequivocal: “If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck”. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: http://www.frdan.org.
Prayer for the day: God our Father, deepen our sense of sin so that as we strive to stay away from all sinful occasions we may not lead others to temptation. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
CHURCH BULLETIN:
SAINT OF THE DAY: ST. LEANDER OF SEVILLE. His brothers, Bishops Isidore and Fulgentius and his sister Florentiana are all saints. Because of his dedication to spread Christianity that resulted in the conversion of the Visigoths and the Suevi, King Leovigild, who supported the Arian doctrines, exiled to Constantinople. There he became a close friend of the papal legate who was to become Pope Gregory the Great. St. Leander presided over the third local Council of Toledo which decreed the consubstantiality of the Three Persons of the Trinity. He was the first to introduce the Nicene Creed at Mass in the West and he composed the Rule for nuns which influenced a great number.
Leave a comment