Nm 11:25-29
Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
Jas 5:1-6
Mk 9:38-43,45,47-48
So lately, I have been getting lots of questions about heaven. What’s it going to be like? What will happen in heaven? …. so on and so forth. Based on today’s Gospel, you would think that heaven is probably going to be filled with a bunch half blind, handless people hopping around on one foot. Can you picture that: people hopping around running into each other and missing appendages? Our second reading has just as much bad news: If you are rich – you must weep and wail over your impending miseries – wealth being rotted away, clothes to be moth-eaten. Basically, all the material riches that you’ve gotten illicitly and through cheating and dishonesty will cause you great pain and suffering.
This is obviously a lot of bad news today. Jesus is not going to water down the truth about sin. Some would say this is hyperbole – a rhetorical device of exaggeration not meant to be taken literally. The thing about Jesus in the Gospels, it’s hard to tell when He is speaking hyperbolically or literally. In any case, the radical comparison that He makes here is definitely meant to be taken seriously. Your eyes: what do you do with them? Do you keep your eyes and your mind on your business or are you concerned about other people? Do you sin or commit adultery? Do you look with eyes of envy or jealously? Do they cause you to lust, look at pornography, or fantasize about sinful things? Jesus is saying get that out of there! Cut it out!
Your hands: do you use them to help or to harm? Do you steal from others or give to charity? Do you use them to fight or use them to hug? Are they used for self gratification or masturbation or are they used to love and selflessness? Jesus is saying that if your hands are causing you to sin, get rid of it!
What happens when something gets infected? Bacteria builds up, corrupts, and lays waste, not only to the part that is infected but also to the rest of the body. Back when medicine was not as advanced, they would have to amputate. Amputation was not a punishment or meant to be a form of torture, but a matter of self-preservation. You had to get rid of it in order to live. It is the same in this day and age with cancer: things start growing where they shouldn’t, affecting the whole body and causing incredible harm to the body and so we have the gift of medicine to get rid of those things or at least try to mitigate the damages. The sin in our life needs to be cut out. Our hearts may have lots of sin and things that offend God, cut them out so that it does not affect and corrupt the rest of your body. Why would anyone want to live in their own filth and sin? Why would anyone want to be held back by things that hurt them? Root out the sin in your life, take a good look at your life and see what there is in your life that is keeping you from God. If you are not growing closer to God, you are moving away from Him. After you take a good look at your life, go to Confession – the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I promise you, you will feel a lot better and you will have the grace to live a better life. If you are not growing closer to God, you are moving away from Him.
To all of you youngins’: If your boyfriend or girlfriend is keeping you from getting closer to God or in fact leading you away from God, get rid of him or her. He or she is not worth your salvation and the good relationship that you have with God. Don’t think that you can change them or convert them during your relationship – ya’ll have enough trouble and struggle just trying to learn and know each other let alone trying to carry on a theological discussion about why we should love God. Just be regular normal friends and learn about God first and then see if He is calling you to be together. God must be central in your life, the means by which everything happens in your life.
If you will bear with me, talking about sin is depressing and nobody wants to leave here depressed. Therefore I’m going to change gears and talk about something boring…. The Mass! Okay, it might seem boring to you, but I promise you that it is not boring. You know when the celebrant says: “The Lord be with you”? And everyone responds, “And with your spirit.” It’s great now – I know who has been to Mass in the last year because they give the wrong response – cheap thrills of a priest. Actually, I think it’s really just so cool that there is this back and forth response – it’s the inside joke that we Christians really get. It’s one of the “secret passwords” of our faith. We are in the know… “haha I know what to say when the priest or deacon says, ‘The Lord be with you’.”
But what exactly are you saying? Are you really in the know? Where does this phrase come from? Our first reading speaks of Moses and the seventy elders. Moses really had a difficult time managing the people so what happened? The Lord bestowed the spirit that was on Moses and bestowed it on the seventy elders. And then it happened that two men who were not present but were part of the group also received the spirit. Moses and the seventy elders had a very special spirit that was upon them, sent by God; the Spirit that comes from God and rested on them. The Lord was always present in the camp of the Israelites as they traveled through the desert, but there was an extra spirit that was only present in Moses and then later to the seventy elders. This Tradition was carried on through the ages, through Jesus’ time with the Apostles to present day. In the same way for us, I say, “The Lord be with you.” To tell you that the Lord is present here and your response is to say, “And with your spirit.” The spirit that is with me or any other priest or deacon, by the power of ordination, is to be in the person of Jesus Christ – His Spirit acting and present in the sacraments. Therefore every time I offer prayers, I say those words: to recognize that Christ is present in and amongst you all, and you recognize and invoke the spirit that is upon the priest to pray for and on behalf of you, the people of God. It’s like we get in the car, Dad makes sure that we are all buckled up and ready to go – a spiritual checklist before we take off for heaven.
Today we covered two very important things that I hope you can incorporate into your life: the fact that sin can corrupt the rest of the body and must be rooted out and cut off so that you can walk in God’s good graces to heaven. If it’s been a few months since your last confession come on in and get your soul washed up – don’t let those sins weigh you down anymore. Today we also learned the meaning of the words “The Lord be with you” and “With your spirit”. In the Mass take note the times the priest or deacon says those words – they signify that something important is about to happen. In your prayers, especially as you are praying with me in the Mass, bear in mind the presence of Christ and thereby you can have full active, actual participation in the Mass. It is not just something I do, but you do too: The Lord is with you.
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