I was once talking with a priest during confession, talking about things I had done that were bothering me and had offended God – things I hated that I kept doing, that I needed forgiveness for. He then said something that I will always remember. He said, “All of those things you just said, they’re just fluff. What we need to do is get to the root of the problem. We need to find out the why. What is the cause?”
As I was reflecting upon the readings today, especially the gospel, I thought of this experience. I thought of the words this priest said. When we’re dealing with a problem, something that we do over and over, something that we hate about ourselves, something that causes us to sin – we have to find out the why – and we’ve got to cut it off.
Now, it not necessarily to the extent that Jesus says in the gospel today, where He mentions:
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
He’s not necessarily telling us to literally cut off our limbs if they cause us to sin, but His point is this – we need to find the root cause of the sin in our lives, where that devil is tempting us, and why it is a temptation to us, why we give into that sin, and we’ve got to cut that causeoff.
We’ve got to sever the head.
A simple concept. But so difficult to identify, and even more difficult to do.
If we don’t find the cause and eliminate it from our life, we will never break free. Simple as that.
And it can be so hard to see the cause of this sin in our life because there is so much excess, so many distractions around us in the world today. Saint James talks about this excess in the second reading today, and how it will destroy us if we let it, and that we will continue to condemn and kill Christ as a result of this fluff in our lives if we continue to idolize it.
We’ve got to get to the nut of it, why do we do the things we do. We all can change. We all can grow in Christ through a constant, gradual conversion. There are plenty of examples through past and modern times where this has happened. I’ve seen it happen.
We’ve simply got to be open to Christ, open to the people He places in our lives, people that are doing His work, performing the healing we most desperately need. Resist the temptation to turn away from Him, to turn away from those people He puts in our lives. Resist the temptation to isolate yourself and not seek forgiveness. Resist the temptation to simply accept the things you do as just who you are with no hope of getting better, with no hope that He can help. Resist the temptation to not find the root of the problem, so that you can be helped.
Resist.
