A literal interpretation of the Gospel we hear today would lead to some physically disfigured Christians walking around. Fortunately for us, from the earliest days of the Church, our Lord’s words about cutting off hands, plucking out eyes, and chopping off feet to avoid sin have always been understood as a form of Biblical hyperbole employed by the Lord to emphasize how dangerous sin is for our soul and where sin ultimately leads.
Jesus uses this tough language of cutting and chopping to emphasize the importance of severing our attachment to sin. “It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna.” How much better it is for us to do without something than to risk an eternity separated from God! Taking our Lord’s language seriously, we ought to ask what it is in our lives that leads to sin, and thus what we need to excise from our lives to live virtuously. For our purposes, rather than thinking of an appendage that leads to sin, we can consider objects or sinful habits. For example, the technology available to us is often a source of sin. We might notice that the sin is laziness, time wasted scrolling aimlessly on social media, or a coarsened speech or uncharitable view of others inspired by the outrage factories of certain social network bubbles. If your social media causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better to not have or use social media than to go to hell. With the smartphone and tablet devices, struggles with pornography have become increasingly common. This is a cancer that must be cut out of our society. Consider the most radical option – get rid of tablets and smartphones (especially for children!). If that is not possible, set boundaries for their use – only in common areas of the home – and time limits – only during certain hours, ending before 9 PM, for example. Better to enter into heaven free of screens than because of the ubiquitous pornography available on smart devices to fall into hell. If the sin is related to a different physical appetite and takes the shape of overconsumption of food or alcohol, better to choose sobriety or a more disciplined diet, even if it that means doing without sometimes. If the sin is gossip, one might need to change the way they approach even friendly conversations. Better to be silent than with words to condemn oneself to eternal separation from the Lord. Whatever the sin might be, Jesus wants it to have no place in our lives. Wherever we see sinful habits creeping in, the remedy, says the Lord, is a spiritual surgery and cutting off those diseases that damage our souls.
Fortunately, we in the Church are not the only ones recognizing this need. Our secular society has also recognized that some bad habits are widespread and embraced the notion of personal discipline. In some states, pornography has been declared a public health crisis. Many school districts are intentionally keeping screens out of the classroom and eliminating them from homework assignments. Fitness magazines declare the glory of fasting and encourage physical, if not moral or spiritual discipline. Even the world at large has seen the worth of things that the Church has long held as valuable spiritual practices. We can see that certain secular outlets are on the right track, even if they do not yet know the power of God’s grace. This is why Jesus prefaces everything he says about eliminating sin with an acknowledgement of the goodness that can be present in the world. Even if the man casting out demons in the name of Jesus is not a disciple, he is doing something good and moving in the right direction. Just so, eliminating sin, whether motived by unconditional love for God or a simple desire to be more regulated in conduct, is a step in the right direction. For us to more perfectly embrace the discipleship to which the Lord calls us, we are invited to start by cutting sin our of our lives, knowing that God in His mercy will always give us the grace we need to carry our burdens and so enter into everlasting life.
