Readings: Num 11:25-29; Jas 5:1-6; Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
In the first reading and in the Gospel reading today we are presented with situations of jealousy. In the first reading, God takes some of the Spirit that was on Moses and gives it to the seventy elders who went with Moses. Two people who were supposed to be with Moses they decided to remain in the camp, but the Spirit rested on them as well. Joshua thought this was wrong since the two had not gone out with Moses and he wanted Moses to stop them.
Moses answered Joshua saying: “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!” We see the humility of Moses and how it counters the jealousy displayed by Joshua.
In the Gospel we hear about someone who was driving out demons using the Lord’s Name, but the Apostles tried to stop him because the man was not from their number. Jesus told them not to stop such a person because someone cannot perform mighty deeds in His Name and speak ill of Him at the same time.
Following this, our Lord tells us that if our hand or foot causes us to sin, cut it off; if our eye causes us to sin, pluck it out. It is better, He said, to enter in Heaven maimed, crippled, or blind than to be thrown into Gehenna with our bodies intact. Obviously, our hands, feet, eyes, or any other part of our body cannot cause us to sin. We can use the parts of our bodies to commit sin, but it is what is in the heart that is the problem.
Clearly, the implication of Jesus’ teaching is that if we have some area of sin in our lives that would cause us to lose our salvation, we need to remove it. Better to enter life without something to which we are attached, addicted, or think is so important than to be thrown into the eternal flames with it.
Our Lord’s point about eternity is obvious, but we need to look deeper at the problem areas to see what they do to us now. There is always some perceived good in whatever sin we commit. The lure of the evil one is usually going to be on the immediate, that is, the pleasure we will obtain, the pride with which we are puffed up, the self-righteousness we feel, whatever it may be. The temptation is usually to have something very quickly.
Of course, the enemy of our soul knows our weaknesses and he knows if we give in we will be weaker and desire more. He seems to fulfill his promise because for the moment we enjoy what we desired. It does not take long to experience the emptiness that inevitably follows, but he will be right there to tell us we just need to give into our weakness again, thus seeming to fill the void and bring us what we desire.
St. James, in the second reading, spoke of the effects of our sins using the problem of those who are attached to money and materialism. He said their wealth has rotted, their clothes have become moth-eaten, and their gold and silver have become corroded. These are external things one might acquire, but again, the real problem is within.
What does sin do to our soul? If we apply to the sin of jealousy the effects St. James mentions regarding avarice, we can say that jealousy eats away at our insides, our soul becomes rotted and corroded. Anyone who has dealt with jealousy knows how it works on the mind and begins to harden the heart. It begins to turn the object of desire into an idol and wreaks havoc within us, robbing us of our peace.
I am using jealousy as the example because it is in the readings today, but any area of sin will cause problems within us. If we could see the insidious nature of our sins and the horrible effects they have on our souls, we would realize the devil’s temptations are not for our good. Rather, they destroy us from the inside, eating away at the spiritual foundations of our being.
Giving into the devil’s temptations has a momentary fulfillment and a long-term effect. We cannot try to convince ourselves that our sins are really not a big deal. They are corroding and rotting us from within and they could, ultimately, cause us to lose Heaven and the union with God for which we are created. So, whatever your sin, don’t justify it, get rid of it! Better to enter Heaven without it than to be thrown with it into Gehenna, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
