Twenty-Sixth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B: "When In Doubt, Cut It Out.”

“When Jesus exaggerated” is a book title, and there are countless articles on how Jesus uses exaggeration and hyperbole for effect, like we hear this Sunday; to literally cut off your hand or foot or gouge-out your eyes because then you won’t sin with them.1

However, “it is not hyperbole to say that it is better to enter heaven maimed [one-armed, one-footed, and one-eyed] than to enter hell whole. That is literally true.”2

Jesus’ point is that drastic sins call for drastic measures.

Why did Jesus mention the hand, foot, and eye? In many biblical contexts, “the hand is the instrument for the commission of sin, the foot is the means of transport to the place of its commission, and the eye is which the temptation to commit it enters in.”2

To illustrate, lizards scatter when they perceive a threat, and they will self-amputate their tail if a predator seizes it. It will leave its tail behind and run but with modified locomotor performance and mechanics. The lizard says to itself: 'It's better to lose my tail than to lose my life!'

Gehenna is hell.

“Some people,” Lucia, one of the visionaries at Fatima, says, “even the most devout, refuse to speak to children about hell, because it might frighten them. Yet God did not hesitate to show hell to three children, one of whom was only six years old, knowing well that she would be horrified to the point of, I would almost dare to say, withering away in fear.”

Lucia said that Jacinta often sat thoughtfully on the ground or on a rock, and exclaimed,

“Oh Hell! Hell! How sorry I am for the souls who go to hell!! And the people down there, burning alive, like wood in the fire! Then, shuddering, she knelt down with her hands joined, and recited the prayer that Our Lady had taught us:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy.”

But “what made the biggest impression on Jacinta was the idea of eternity. Even in the middle of a game, she would stop and ask:

“But listen! Doesn’t hell end after many, many years then?

The answer she knew, its “no, it doesn’t.” As we hear today in our Gospel, “into Gehenna, where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"

In Greek mythology, Prometheus, was chained to a rock and had his liver eaten by an eagle. At night the liver would grow back again, and the next day the eagle would eat it all over again. Similarly, the worm is an aspect of hell that is a reaction of one’s own soul to the perceived disorder and that 'their worm does not die,” as Jesus says, which is not a marketing ploy, gentlemen, for a type of tequila!

As Mark Pestaña explains, “The will of a damned soul, similar to the will of a demon, cannot alter. Their subjectivism has succeeded, and they have made themselves oblivious to real goods and unmovable by them. Nothing can be done for them — they would not be attracted to real goods, even if they became fully aware of them. Nonetheless, in this life, human beings always retain the possibility of converting the course of their lives by God’s grace.4

A premise behind our Readings is that there is a moral order that exists independently of any human person’s consciousness of it, and that we can come to know that order, and know it as real.

Jacinta would say to people, “Don’t do that or you will go to hell.”

Some things must be cut out completely. In Latin, “In dubio, abstine.” The translation is “when in doubt, abstain.” Or, even better, “When in doubt, cut it out.”

Food: Fast for part of a day; each less; skip condiments, no sugar. At Fatima, Jacinta would gladly give her lunch away to poor children and then later be hungry and eat acorns from the oak trees or olives instead.

In posture: sit up straight, do not cross your legs.

In the bathroom- take a shorter shower; take a cold show, clean up; let others use the bathroom before you.

With the internet- skip it entirely except for work, eliminate completely going to any internet site unless and only if it is for a clear, useful purpose. At all times, divert your gaze at any opportunity for lust. “Half-measures availed us nothing,” as the saying goes. For some it means living without the internet on a permanent basis, and letting others download forms for you that have to fill out, etc.

As far as deliberately causing others to sin, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone