What is the 'hand', the 'foot', the 'eye' that causes me to sin, especially in the use of power? Sunday Reflections, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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The Harvest
Auguste-Xavier Leprince [Web Gallery of Art]

Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts (James 5:4; Second Reading).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

“And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge


Abbey Road, Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, Huntsville, Utah, USA
The Abbey, opened in 1947, closed in 2017
[Wikipedia, photo by Exorcisio Te]

In August 1982, after a year’s study in Toronto and before three months of Clinical Pastoral Education in Minneapolis, I supplied in a number of parishes for short periods in the Diocese of Boise, which covers the whole of the state of Idaho in the western USA. One of my purposes for this was to visit the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, Huntsville, Utah, where I had spent ten days or so in August 1970. There I had met some of the monks who were to be part of the community that would open the first Trappist foundation in the Philippines, in Guimaras island, now Our Lady of the Philippines Trappist Monastery. 

Continue at Bangor to Bobbio.

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