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.”
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. Sometimes our hands are used to grasp at
things our egos want, but which God forbids: inordinate amounts of money, sex,
power, material possessions. 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. We must be willing to sever our grasping at things
which are sinful and poisonous.
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.
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 of 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?
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.
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.
A good daily prayer is to ask your guardian angel, your patron saint, and the
Holy Spirit to help you identify the tendencies, the habits, the vices that we
need to turn over to God, that he may transform for his glory.
I don’t know about you, but I think it is always very clear when
we meet a saint, who has taken this Gospel seriously, who has striven to excise
sin and selfishness 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 acts of charity lead us to experience that joy
of God’s kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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