(Audio)
Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
There is an urgency to the call and invitation of God. We prefer to delay, saying with Saint Augustine, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet." The sentiment of that quote even amuses us. In part this is because we relate to the human weakness it expresses. But part of the reason we're amused is because we don't really appreciate just how serious of an affront to God sin is.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
Jesus wants us to know that we should take sin seriously. We should be willing to do whatever is necessary to uproot sin from our own souls and to avoid causing "little ones" to sin not only by our own example of sin but also by our own lack of zeal.
Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
The thing about sin is that it promises what it can't deliver. It says to worry about the eye now and not the impure things it sees. It puts flesh first and spirit in an ever receding second place. Jesus, by hyperbole, invites us to the wisdom of proper priority. Just as we must love him so much that we hate all others by comparison so too must we love virtue so much as to mutilate the flesh that tries to oppose it. It is not true hatred of others, but a lesser love proper to them for which we strive. Neither do we truly need to mutilate our bodies to avoid sin though it may almost feel that way to us.
If what we do need to do for conversion feels like a mutilation it may be worthy of embracing even so. It is probably the case that when the addict joins a twelve step program he feels he is mutilating himself. Alcohol had perhaps begun to feel like an appendage for him which must be severed. Yet the riches of the Spirit that all of us can find in place of our addictions are worth the sacrifice.
Power and riches shield us from knowing just how temporary is the satisfaction which sin is able to provide. We are called to a deeper peace that world cannot take away.
"Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."
The Holy Spirit will preserve us as salt preserves food. He will be our joy and our lasting satisfaction in this life and the next. While sin turns all it touches insipid we feast instead on the pure delights of the LORD.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
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