The thanksgiving sacrifice

 A recording of today's gospel and blog can be accessed here.

Today’s gospel (Matthew 5:27-32) offers a series of commands from the Lord during His sermon on the mount. Adultery, He says, is not just a matter of action but begins with the thoughts of the heart. He incites His listeners to sever or lose any member of their body that leads them into sin. Finally, He points out the moral implications of divorce which the people of Israel had been permitted to do by Moses.

Jesus is of course speaking here about sins or faults of which we are conscious. But at the heart of all these commands lies a reality that runs throughout all Christian moral teaching: that our conduct is not simply an outward display or performance but something that engages us entirely from our hearts. Our souls and our bodies are shattered by sin. We are pulled apart in a hundred different directions, and our conscious desires overlap with our unconscious ones, our genuine needs with our dissonant ones. Part of our Christian mission, since we have renounced Satan and all his works, is to try with the grace of God to gather these fragments together again, or rather to allow the Lord to do this work in our hearts.

And yet we are tempted, nevertheless, by the lure of our own disintegration.  We see and approve the better things of life but the worse things we follow. Or as Saint Paul says, the good that we would do we do not, and the evil that we would avoid that we do. Such realities in our daily existence are a reminder that we do not simply need a teacher, but a Redeemer and a healer of our souls.

Some may be tempted to dismiss the severity of the injunctions of Jesus in this passage. Of course, when He speaks about cutting one's hand off or plucking out one’s eye, He is using hyperbole. And yet, it may be that we can indeed metaphorically sever those things that are not so much members of our body but which have become dear to us. Many years ago, a priest told me that Jesus Himself recommended throwing out the television; today, he might have said the mobile phone. Smiling at my confusion, the priest then reminded me about this passage where Jesus says to pluck out one's own eye. It may not be practical to dispose of all our entertainment technologies, but a great example is set by the digital minimalist movement who have, as it were, plucked out their own digital eyes simply for the human benefits minimalizing their use brings to the individual. How much more seriously should we take this challenge, we who seek another Kingdom?

I will offer you a thanksgiving sacrifice, O Lord, says today's response to the Psalm. This line should be our daily meditation as we face the necessary restrictions and penances that we are called upon to perform, whether through denial or through undertaking some unpleasant duty. And that is as it should be, for the Lord himself commands us: if any man would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. And in another place, He says, Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.