Reflection for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 26th Sept. '21.
The opening collect of today's Mass makes, what to many, would seem an extraordinary claim:
O God, who manifest your almighty power, above all by pardoning and showing mercy.
We are perhaps so used to the idea of God performing great miracles in the Bible - parting the Red Sea, raising the dead, healing all kinds of disease and sickness, rising from the dead - that we can forget that the greatest miracle he performs, is what he does on a daily basis throughout the world, forgiving sinners of their wrongdoing.
Partly, of course, this is because we are living in an age which has entirely forgotten the importance, or the seriousness of sin. St. Catherine of Genoa puts it this way:
[T]he sweet God loves with a pure love the creature that He has created, and has a hatred for nothing but sin, which is more opposed to Him than can be thought or imagined.
Sin is so utterly opposed to the goodness of God that it requires an extraordinary action of His power to be able to forgive us and stay in relationship with us. The fact that He does it, gives us a fresh sense of the meaning of the words: God is love.
It is important, however, that we do try and interiorise the significance of that fact. For, if we do not, then what we will end up doing is, in our minds, taking away from the fulness of the glory of God. That is to say, if we regard sin as nothing so serious, then we must, of necessity, not regard God's holiness as anything so great, either. God's 'otherness', his utter-goodness, means that He can, by nature, have nothing to do with sin. But, if we carry on as if sin is no big thing for Him, then we must understand Him to be reasonably at home with sin, and perhaps not that holy, not that 'utter' in His goodness.
Thus, in a very real way, the hatred that we manifest for sin in our lives is a reflection of reverence, the worship that we have for God. That is to say, if I have a deep reverence for God, then my concern over my sins will be likewise deepened.
If we were unsure over how seriously we should take sin in our lives, the Gospel makes it really plain.
[I]f your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out.’
Our Lord's language here is firm, but it is because He - being God - can see the seriousness of human sin. Seeing it, He is urging us to take the means necessary, against it.
His words are not, obviously, directing us to mutilate ourselves - that would be a sin in itself. Our Lord is using the Rabbinical language of hyperbole to make a point. If your hand were causing you to sin, then you should cut it off; but, your hand isn't causing you to sin - it is your mind & heart where you choose what to do with your hand that caused you to sin. The problem is in your mind & heart, and it is there that the radical action needs to be taken.
This brings us back to the opening prayer.
O God, who manifest your almighty power, above all by pardoning and showing mercy; bestow your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Who are those hastening to [God's] promises? Well, it needs to be understood in conjunction with the earlier clause - it is those receiving God's pardon and mercy. And who are they?
Well, if forgiving and showing mercy are the greatest manifestations of God's power, then the Confession box really is the room of miracles, par excellence. It is there, more than anywhere, that God's forgiveness is imparted. And it is there that radical action is taken to convert mind and heart. If your heart is causing you to sin, then the answer is to cut it open before Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and let Him there do His work of healing.
It is an extraordinary miracle of God's power, that you and I can, in spite of our sins, be heirs to the treasures of heaven. What a tragedy, if even knowing that, we do not hasten towards that promise, today.
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