Uncompromisingly free
Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel make a dramatic and urgent appeal.
Reading: Mark 9:41-50
The following homily was preached to the student brothers during Compline. You can listen here or read below:
Flannery O’Connor, the American novelist, justified the occasional extremes in her writing by saying that “to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.” If you want to drive a message home to an audience that are likely to misunderstand you, you have to say it loudly.
It seems Jesus takes just this approach with his disciples in today’s Gospel. His words about cutting off hands and feet and plucking out eyes are blunt, to say the least. The language is uncomfortably strong. The point Jesus is making is clear. If anything is an obstacle to your salvation, get rid of it. Whatever gets in the way must go.
The trilogy of hands, feet, and eyes is holistic. Job refers to the same three organs when he proclaims his desire for purity: “let God know my integrity! if my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, and if any spot has clung to my hands…” (Job 31:6-7). This trio speaks to the manifold ways we place obstacles in our path, and it provides a helpful examination of conscience.
Our hands are made for reaching out to grasp things – what is it that I cling on to? What created things do I hold, in place of my Creator? Our feet are made to set us on the right path – which way do I walk? What is the trajectory of my life? And our eyes are made to see – where do I look? what, or whom, do I seek?
The Church has consistently read this passage as referring to ‘occasions of sin’, situations which are likely to lead us down a dangerous path. These may be harmless in themselves but often lead to no good. It is tempting to soften the force of Jesus’ words by dismissing them as hyperbole and exaggeration. But just because the command is metaphorical – of course Jesus doesn’t recommend mutilation – that does not mean its force should be lessened. Jesus is uncompromising, and asks to be uncompromising with ourselves. Whatever gets in the way must go.
But amidst the challenge that Jesus poses here, there is important perspective to these words we must not lose sight of. In the third statement, Jesus compares entering the kingdom of God to being thrown into hell. But in the other two the comparison is slightly different: It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell…
Jesus is not speaking here about something that lies in the future. It may seem that we are being asked to forego all sorts of earthly delights, to live a miserable existence on earth, so as to delight eventually in the bliss of heaven. But that isn’t the case at all: Jesus invites us to enter into life here and now.
Sin cramps us and paralyzes us, it diminishes our nature and prevents us from flourishing. To cut off all occasions of sin is the beginning of freedom. It is to cast off our shackles, and enjoy the fulness of life that Christ offers. The glory of God is a man fully alive, as St Irenaeus put it. Jesus’ offer is dramatic and urgent because it invites us to begin today. Christ’s words chime with the appeal of St Paul: “the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light.”
Image: Resurrection (1457), by Mantegna
