So, now, for what concerns the rich, cry and weep, for the misfortunes that are coming upon you.
Your riches are rotting, and your clothes, eaten up by the moths. Your silver and gold have rusted, and their rust grows into a witness against you. It will consume your flesh, like fire, for having piled up riches, in these, the last days.
You deceived the workers who harvested your fields, but, now, their wages cry out to the heavens. The reapers’ complaints have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You lived in luxury and pleasure in this world, thus, fattening yourselves for the day of slaughter. You have easily condemned, and killed the innocent since they offered no resistance.
Gospel: Mark 9: 41-50
If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear his name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward. If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck. If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand, than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out.
And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot, than with both feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out!
It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out. The fire itself will preserve them.
Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
REFLECTION:
“God can make us complete.”
We are not merely material beings. We are also spiritual beings. This is the reason why nothing can truly satisfy our deepest self but God. It is only God who can make us complete and whole.
The Gospel today implies that in God’s kingdom, it does not matter if we would only be with one hand, one foot or one eye – what is of value is that we would be able to enter into God’s kingdom or into life. Because there, we would be complete and whole.
On the contrary, it is sin that truly makes us blind, maimed or crippled. Sin makes us incomplete.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus said that it is better to enter into life with one eye, one hand or one foot than with apparently complete body parts but, in reality, broken because of sin.
Hence, whatever causes us to sin must be taken away. In our everyday life, it is indeed good to nourish our physical body. However, we must also attend the needed nourishment for our spiritual wellbeing and growth. Spiritual maturity comes when we learn to say no to sin or to whatever may blind, maim or cripple our spiritual life.
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