The rest of the verses of today’s Gospel-reading include a similar instruction about ‘cutting off’ one’s foot or eye, if these cause us to ‘sin,’ meaning ‘to miss the mark,’ or go into the wrong direction. It’s obviously not to be taken literally, so don’t try this at home )). Nonetheless, the Lord is talking about something painful: sometimes, I have to ‘cut off’ (decisively and completely) something or even someone that is like a part of me, like my hand or foot or eye. Because both I and that part of me are going in the wrong direction, which will ultimately lead me or us both into utter and eternal misery, “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”
If you’re wondering what that means, it’s a reference to the ancient garbage dump in the south of Jerusalem, called Gehenna, where everything from trash to animal carcasses and corpses of convicted criminals was constantly being burned. So, this place, with its constant fires and carcasses (with ‘worms’ or ‘maggots’) came to be associated with hell.
It’s a sobering bit of advice that the Lord is giving us here. But it’s also consoling, if we are in pain, having cut off or cut out of our lives an activity or relationship or habit that we previously enjoyed, but that was bad for us and/or for the other(s) involved. “It is better for you,” He is saying. Because you will “enter into life,” instead of the eternal garbage dump. Even if being “maimed” sounds awful, I like to think of it as being pruned, like a rose bush, so it grows and blooms better in the springtime. Lord, thank you for this Monday morning, as we keep walking and growing toward springtime.🌹
