Mk 9:42-48

TEMPTATIONS TO SIN

“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown in the sea. If your hand cause you to stumble, cut if off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have to hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot cause you to stumble, cut if off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if you eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.”

O ZVADZANI NA HRIECH

Ktokolvek by zviedol na hriech jedno z tychto malickych veriacich, lepsie by bolo, keby mu osli zarnov zavesili na siju a hodili ho do mora. Ak ta zvadza ruka, odtni si ju; lepsie ti je o jednej ruke vojst do zivota, nez s oboma do pekla, do neuhasitelneho ohna. A ak ta zvadza noha, odtni si ju; lepsie ti o jednej nohe vojst do zivota, nez s obama byt uvrhnuty do pekla. A ak ta zvadza oko, vylup si ho; lepsie ti jednookemu vojst do kralovstva Bozieho, ako s obidvoma ocami byt uvrhnuty do pekla, kde ich cerv neumiera a ohen nevyhasina.

CUTTING OFF HAND AND FEET Bishop Barron

Jesus speaks, with incredible bluntness [priamost, ostrost], about cutting off one’s hand and foot and plucking out one’s own eye. If these things are a block to your salvation, get rid of them, for it is better to enter life maimed than to enter hell with all of your limbs and members.

The hand is the organ by which we reach out and grasp things. The soul is meant for union with God, but we have, instead, reached out to creatures, all of our energies grasping at finite things.

The Lord also speaks of the foot. The foot is the organ by which we set ourselves on a definite path. We are meant to walk on the path that is Christ. Do we? Or have we set out down a hundred errant paths, leading to wealth, honor, power, or pleasure?

We are designed to seek after and look for God. Have we spent much of our lives looking in all the wrong places beguiled [ocareny, oklamany] by the beauties and enticements [vabenie] of this world? And are we willing to pluck out our eye spiritually, to abandon many of the preoccupations that have given us pleasure?