You may remember from a few years back the story of a man
named Aron Ralston. Aron Ralston was a
vigorous and adventurous outdoorsman who was given to rock climbing, hiking and
exploring. In 2003, he was exploring the
canyons of Eastern Utah, and while lowering himself into a rocky crevasse, he
stirred some rocks loose and fell to the ground and an 800 pound boulder
crushed his hand and pinned him to the canyon wall. He lay there in agony for two days, trying
desperately to free himself from the boulder to no avail. Finally, in his desperation, convinced he
would die otherwise, he took his small pocket-knife, and began to cut off his
own arm. Despite unspeakable pain, he
completed his task.
Aron Ralston then tied a crude tourniquet around the stump
of his arm, so he would not bleed to death, and wandered through the desert
until he came to a road and flagged down a car.
Some months after this incredible ordeal, Aron Ralston
appeared on the David Letterman show.
And he told his story. The audience
was of course spellbound. And when he
finished, the normally lighthearted and sarcastic David Letterman became
unusually serious. Looking at his guest
intently, Letterman said with great admiration, “You know something about life
that I don’t.”
Why am I retelling this strange story? It should be
clear. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks with
incredible bluntness about cutting off one’s hand, cutting off one’s foot,
plucking out one’s eyes, if these things have become an obstacle to your
salvation. “Better enter eternal life maimed, then to go to Gahenna, with all
your limbs and members.” Hard words, no? Very stark, blunt, hard words.
You’ve probably heard numerous homilies on this reading,
probably saying that we should just interpret Jesus’ words as exaggeration,
hyperbole, to prove a point. Perhaps.
But we shouldn’t be so quick to pass over this teaching because it is
difficult.
Perhaps, we can understand this teaching in light of Aron
Ralston’s amazing story. Aron Ralston
found himself in mortal danger. So
desperate was his situation that he needed to do something very painful, very
extreme, to save his life. He knew
something drastic had to be done, and he was willing, despite the pain, to do
it.
Sure we might do something extreme to save our physical
life, but Jesus teaches, we must be willing to go to extremes for the sake of
our spiritual life. We must protect our
souls from spiritual death by abhorring sin, and keeping ourselves out of
danger of sin. For a soul, in a state of
mortal sin, is bound not toward heaven, but toward hell.
Now, of course, I’m not urging anyone to cut off their hands
and feet or pluck out their eyes. But
each of us does have, a serious responsibility, to make changes in our life, if
we are not living the Gospel as we should.
Jesus mentions our hands, our feet, and our eyes. And we
should reflect on what each of these means in the spiritual life. Our hands are used to grasp at things our
egos want, but which God forbids: inordinate amounts of money, sex, power,
material things. All the way back in the
Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve’s sin was grasping at the forbidden fruit,
grasping at a life God had not intended for them.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis, yes, speaking with great
gentleness this week throughout his Papal Visit to the United States, still
offers the same warning as our Lord, that we will never build a just society,
if we are worried more about grasping than serving and offering mercy.
Jesus, secondly mentions our feet. The foot is the organ by which we walk. We are meant, as disciples of Jesus, to walk
towards God, along paths of righteousness.
God is the goal of our life.
Thomas Aquinas said, you want to find Joy? Then walk the path that leads
to God alone. What do most of us do,
though? We walk down so many errant paths which instead of bringing us joy,
takes it from us. So many of our paths
keep us isolated from real life-giving communion with God and with each other.
Last night at Madison Square Garden, in New York, Pope
Francis talked about the isolation of living in a big city. Where we use our
feet to walk past those most in need. “There
are forces pushing us to isolation and lack of concern”, the Pope said, “for
the lives of others.” We are so often deprived of the joy of Christian service,
because we are so busy walking passed each other, walking away from each other.
It’s hard to change directions when we
are set on our familiar, comfortable paths, but we must be willing to follow
the Lord out of the comfortable and into service. So if we are not walking in
the path of righteousness, we must make the effort to change.
Finally, Jesus mentions the eye, the organ of vision. Aquinas teaches that man is destined for the
beatific vision, the sight of God face-to-face in heaven, but so often we find
ourselves turning our gazes away from God.
The entire spiritual life is a constant process looking to the things of
God, of purifying our hearts, that we may see God. But again, what do most of
us do? We spend most of our lives looking for happiness in all the wrong places:
the Glamour, illusion, sparkly, shiny things of worldliness, which keep us from
prayer and service and knowledge of God.
How much time do you spend looking at a screen instead of looking to the
cross, or seeking the face of God in quiet prayer?
At evening prayer, Friday night at St. Patrick’s cathedral,
Pope Francis said, spoke of the danger of “surrounding ourselves with worldly
comforts.” These things are dangerous he said because they “can blunt the power
of God’s daily call to conversion, to encounter with him.”
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, if your foot
causes you to sin, cut it off, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it
out. Jesus teaches to consider our
spiritual life with great urgency. St.
Paul says, the athlete is willing to sacrifice all sorts of things to train and
win an earthly prize; we must be willing to eliminate things which keep us from
Godliness, in order to win that heavenly prize.
Pope Francis, Friday night, echoed the words of St. Peter,
“you may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials.” But he said,
these words are essential, if we are to live our vocation in joy. Not an easy Gospel today, not an easy
message, but it’s a necessary one if we want to experience the fullness of life
Jesus wants for us. It is always clear when we meet a saint who has striven to
excise sin from his life, you get that sense, like David Letterman had towards
Aron Ralston, “You know something about life that I don’t.” May our
renunciations, sacrifices, and service lead us to experience that joy of God’s
kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment