Dear Parish Family, 

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.” We do not like the picture, but who could argue with the general principle? We act on it all this time in the world of health care. Better to amputate the gangrenous member than to mortally infect the whole body. Better to cut through the abdominal wall and repair the hernia than to risk infection from a strangulated intestine. But how does this principle apply to the life of discipleship? Is Jesus really advocating cutting off hand or foot or plucking out the eye? Nothing in his healing ministry suggests this. But there is a workable principle here: be decisive, even radical, in your choices, when it comes to being faithful to God.

The harsh words of Jesus about sources of disruption to personal loyalty reflect first-century Mediterranean psychology, which is not at all introspective but rather based on values attributed to external dimensions of human life. From the beginning to the end of the Bible, it is clear that the Hebrews viewed human beings as consisting of three interlocking zones symbolized by parts of the body. Hands and feet symbolize purposeful activity. If one’s activity (hand or foot) causes one to stumble during tests of loyalty, one must put an end to such behavior.

Eyes are invariably paired with the heart in the Bible to symbolize the zone of emotion-fused thought, reflective consideration of proper courses of action. If the eye, the organ that feeds information to the heart, is unreliable in tests of loyalty, one must take serious action to halt the damage. Interpreters incline toward giving these verses figurative rather than literal meaning. Surely, Jesus did not intend to gather a band of lame and blind followers around himself. While this view has merit, one should not forget that even today in the Middle East physical punishment of this sort is still meted out to convicted criminals.

Jesus’ point is that no matter how painful, any effort to insure loyalty to him in this life is far less painful than the punishment for disloyalty to be administered in the world to come. We can act on this principle of loyalty in our context: for example, in the context of the Christian covenant, commitment to a spouse means you need to cut off any other sexual relationship and every activity that tends to feed our temptation to unfaithfulness. If alcohol is addictive for you, drop it entirely. If the television threatens to vitiate normal family communication, put it out of the living room. If the job compromises your conscience, and the boss will not hear of any changes of policy, maybe you need to quit. Holiness requires a radical assent to fidelity.

Fr. Tom Kunnel. C.O.