Homily: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 29, 2024
My dear brothers and sisters, in the gospel reading of today, our Lord Jesus Christ cautions about the sin of scandal and the need for us to handle our salvation carefully in the most serious and strongest of terms. One question that comes to mind is why did Jesus use such stern and harsh language? The answer is simple, nothing in the universe is more precious and valuable than our soul. Jesus himself paid the prize of our soul. He knew the worth, it is not a prize paid with Canadian dollar or British pound or Chinese Yuan, no, it is a supreme prize paid with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Imagine how painful it would be to us when someone maliciously damages what we have labored and worked for all through our life. This example is not even comparable to the value of a soul and the high prize that Jesus paid to save humanity.
On the first teaching about the sin of scandal, Jesus says, “if any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck, and you were thrown into the sea.” So, in Jesus words, turning people away from truth, from the faith, from virtue by our bad life, bad advice, bad example, by casting doubt on the Word of God, by mockery of divine things is not just simple. A preferable alternative is to tie a very heavy millstone on the neck of the person and go and drown him or her right at the middle of Lake Ontario. From this Jesus’ description, is not even enough to sink the person in the sea, lest his/her remains may float for some days, no, the person needs a heavy stone on the neck so as to be buried perpetually at the sea floor never to see the light of the universe again. Brothers and sisters, parents, this may sound a little funny but really we have a lot of work to do, we should always strive to see that our words, actions and inactions should not scandalize others and cause them to go astray.
Jesus continued and said, that if our hand or foot or eye or any member of our body would cause us to be thrown into hell fire that we should cut it off, it is better for us to enter heaven amputated or blind than go to hell physically sound. The truth is that even in our physical lives, we somehow obey this Jesus’ command. When a medical procedure requires the removal of a part of our body we usually readily oblige and bear the pain in order to save all the other parts of our body. For instance, we can readily let go of a leg that has become very bad because of a diabetic sore or a cancerous part of our body and bear the pain so as to live and for all the other parts of our body to survive. Even wild animals do it, we usually observe that if a trap catches a rodent on the leg, the rodent would on its own amputate that leg and run for its dear life.
In the spiritual realm, when Jesus talks about cutting off a member of our body to save our life, it appears absurd, brothers and sisters, it is not absurd at all, Jesus emphasizes that there is one goal in life which is worth any sacrifice and that is the salvation of our soul. If there is a moral weakness or an evil habit that deforms spiritual health, the treatment must be radical. When bad acts are repeated, habits are formed which become part of ourselves, nothing short of amputation of evil will save our soul. In all brothers and sisters, this is call to all of us to courageously abandon those bad habits, pleasures, friendships that come between us and obedience to the will of God. It may be painful to us like cutting off a part of our body but that is the price we have to pay for us to have the fullness of life.
