Thursday, May 19, 2016 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.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Today’s Gospel reading appears to be a collection of unrelated sayings of Jesus. But they seem to converge in the concept of “skandalon”, the Greek for “trap”, and the root word of the English “scandal” which means cause of sin. The Gospel reading has two harsh proposals. If the cause of sin is a person, he should be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck. If the cause of sin is any part of one’s body the Lord suggests voluntary mutilation.
Harsh! A person thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck is a dead person. To say that Jesus didn’t mean it literally could only mean that he meant it spiritually. But come to think of it: Wouldn’t this be a worse kind of condemnation?
What about voluntary mutilation? The Lord explains that it is better to enter heaven mutilated than to die complete and languish in hell. To what avail is entering hell complete when the worms will just feast on every body part? Isaiah, describing hell, says: “Their worm will not die nor their fire go out…” (Is. 66:24).
These justifications however, do not temper the harshness of the language of the above-cited proposals. If the exaggeration tells us anything, it is about Jesus’ aversion to sin. We should be serious about our fight against evil. Meanwhile, woe to those who create scandals! By leading others to sin they call upon themselves the heavier hand of God’s justice. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:[email protected].
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