This Sunday’s Gospel is filled with hard sayings, sayings that very much affect our life as Christians. There is not much use in trying to sugar-coat today’s Gospel reading.
In that reading, our Lord Jesus makes mention of hell or gehenna three times. He speaks not only of the existence of hell, but also of the real possibility of someone ending up in hell. Our Lord focuses in on anger and reconciliation, adultery and divorce.
As we delve into the passage from the Gospel, it is good for us to first hear the words of St. Paul from the second reading: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”. This paraphrase of the words of the prophet Isaiah and the Book of Sirach reminds us of the fact that, already in this life, God “is always faithful to deliver those who hope in him” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament, Scott Hahn ed., pg. 287, 2010). Already in this life, God is faithful. And in the next life, our Lord promises a great reward to those who keep their faith, hope, and charity. What is more, God changes our hearts, moulds our hearts, so that we are no longer troubled as much by temptations to anger or impurity.
The Gospel passage we heard today lists the main threats to charity. Among them is anger, and wrath, its close cousin. My brothers and sisters, we know what anger coupled with the lack of forgiveness does to us. We know what keeping grudges does, holding on to past hurts, refusing to forgive even for decades. We know how much anger affects our love of neighbour, how it weakens our charity, and our compassion to those with whom we live and work. We are to seek reconciliation with our neighbour, as much as possible. If reconciliation is not possible, because the other party is not willing to reconcile, we are to at least pray for the grace of forgiveness, and for the grace to be free from angry thoughts and emotions.
Lust is another threat to charity. We realize how much adultery hurts our social fabric, rips families apart, and gives grave scandal to friends and neighbours. Jesus also speaks of the “adultery of the heart,” that is, even looking at a man or a woman with lust. Now, for this to happen, you do not actually have to look at a live person – in these days, we are surrounded by immodest images in advertising. There is yet another issue: the real, present, and painful problem of men and women accessing pornography, and the consequent problem of impure thoughts and actions. There is the very real problem of persons being addicted to pornography. The Catechism of the Catholic Church places pornography on an equal level with alcoholism and drug use (CCC 2211). Ever younger children are looking at indecent pictures, mainly through the internet. So, externally, there is a great need for a purification: of purity in how we speak and address each other, of modesty in how we dress, how we present ourselves, there is a need of chastity in how we think. Internally, there is a great need for a change of hearts, a purification of hearts: this is because all the actions, the emotions, the decisions that we make, originate in the heart. And if we have fallen in the area of purity or anger, let us seek forgiveness: forgiveness is available, forgiveness is possible, mercy is attainable in the Sacrament of Confession.
The words of the Book of Sirach, from our first reading, are straightforward: “[the Lord] has not commanded anyone to be wicked and he has not given anyone permission to sin” (Sir 15:20). The reading from the Book of Sirach makes it very clear, that before us are “fire and water,” “life and death.” The sacred writer says to “stretch out your hand for whichever you choose…and whichever one chooses, that shall be given.”
To those who are trying to walk the way of forgiveness, mercy and purity, St. Augustine of Hippo offers this guidance: “Christ is formed in the believer by faith of the inner man, called to the freedom that grace bestows, meek and gentle, not boasting of nonexistent merits” (Liturgy of the Hours, vol. III, pg. 188). Everything that we have received is a gift of Christ’s grace, and so, we cannot ascribe the merit to ourselves, and act boastfully or pridefully. There is also something else to keep in mind, something that St. Paul mentions in the second reading: God’s wisdom is “secret and hidden,” and it is like a small seed, that sprouts into life eternal. Let us not be discouraged in our struggle against temptation and sin. The small seed of God’s wisdom will grow in our hearts, if we take the time to ask for help in prayer and the sacraments.
The hard sayings of this Gospel are meant to guide us to freedom of mind and heart: the freedom to truly love, the freedom to act justly and righteously, and the freedom to partake of the wisdom of the Cross. May Our Lady, who was truly free in Her “yes” to God, assist us in this great task.
(Fr. Paweł Ratajczak, OMI, Feb. 12, 2023)