Matthew 5:27–32

Reflection on Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:27–32

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away" And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna."

When I read these verses, I thought that if we really do what Jesus said, I do not believe we have any eye or hand left in our body.

So, what does Jesus want to speak to us in today's Gospel?

Obviously, Jesus did not say that we must actually cut off our hands, feet, and eyes because this is just His emphatic way of saying to make an unforgettable impression on the listener.

What Jesus wants to speak is beyond what is visible things like hands and eyes.

He wants us to think about the root of every sinful action from our hearts and remove the source of sin from inside. Jesus once said, "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, and false witness."

So, the point Jesus wants to make is that the root of sin in us must be removed. The source of evil in our hearts needs to die so that God's love may grow, and we may bear fruit.

So, Jesus calls us to go beyond the laws, merely dealing with visible things. He wants us to think of the source of action, the cause that motivates action and eliminates the origin of sin from here.

Jesus' call in the Gospel is that we need to be willing to do certain things as painful as cutting off hands and tearing out eyes. That is to remove the root of sin from our hearts.

Many times, in seminary, I heard professors saying that if you want to be a good priest, as many things have died on the Cross with Jesus Christ, many things in you need to die too. I think many things must die in us in the journey of following Jesus Christ so that we can really get to the point that "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

Many things need to die so that Jesus may live in us. Many things need to be cut off so God's love may grow in us. And many things need to be torn out in us so that we may become what we have received at mass today.

Becoming one body with the Lord Jesus is all about because Christ came to us so that we may come to him. So as many things died on the cross with our Lord Jesus, many things in us need to die also. We are called to cut off the root of our sins from the heart so that we may be worthy of what God has prepared for us; that is the divinity of God.

I will leave you a question to reflect on today: Am I willing to cut off what is sinful in our hearts so that Christ may live in us?

May God bless us all.