Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, reflection at daily mass at Mary Gate of Heaven Church
Jesus once again challenges us in today's gospel to a life of conversion. He asks us to look at our lives and those parts of ourselves that we cling to even when we know they cause us to stumble. Today's gospel is particularly challenging because Jesus reminds us that what causes us to sin does not come from outside. It's not some monster that comes to tempt and attack us. Jesus says it can be your hand or your eye or your foot. It's what's within us that causes us to sin. And Jesus' solution is equally difficult. If you find that it's your hand that causes you to sin, cut it off, you don't need it. Conversion is about letting go of those things that hold us back.
But hold us back from what? What exactly are these sins that we need to guard against? Well in our first reading James condemns those people who have spent their lives indulging themselves in pleasures and riches, but in the process made everyone's life miserable -withholding wages and abusing workers.
So when Jesus talks about sin, he's talking about those things in our lives which hold us back from loving one another and from being in right relationship with one another. At the end of our lives, we won't be remembered for the things we had or the wonderful things we did, people will remember us for the kindness we showed them. Next week we begin lent, and so this is a good time to start asking ourselves, what do I need to let go of so I can better love my neighbor? And may that grace be ours.
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