All the readings today are really about not putting anything else before God in our lives. That’s the true definition of sin: putting something before God in our lives. All three readings today deal with that issue. The things of this earth are not the important ones. Power here means nothing when this life is over. Nothing in this world is worth messing up the next.
If our lust, our desire, our flesh come before God in our lives and threaten our everlasting life, we need to get rid of the obstacle. If our hands cause us to sin through greed, or our eyes cause us to sin through lust, or our feet cause us to sin by taking us down a bad path, we need to stop it. Hopefully amputation will not be necessary, but Jesus says that is preferable to the alternative, which is an eternity without God.
Those who hope in God and put God before anything else in their lives are the blessed ones. Those who put God first in their lives will have their reward in heaven, and those who don’t will have hell to pay.
Tamora Whitney
I teach in the English department. I teach composition and literature and Critical Issues -- a class that has a component on Jesuit values.
I like writing these reflections because it makes me think more deeply about the scripture and think about how to integrate the ideas into my own life and how to share these ideas with others.
