radicality of the gospel

​6th Sunday of Ordinary Time/Year A

​The Book of Sirach (15) states you have before you the choice of fire and water: which would you choose?

Well, probably water because fire burns. Water quenches thirst. Water cools. Fire we associate with burning and pain, with water purity, cleansing, and life. These are the choices of every day because God’s commandments are precisely the equivalent to choosing fire or water:
--Choosing death or choosing life.

​The metaphor used in the book of Ecclesiastes is quite fitting: With fire we might be tempted to poke it, or even put our finger on it, only to discover how hot it is, and even get burned. And suffer. The pain the fire causes, we are left with the marks even the scars of being burned.

Is this any different than when we sin? We are left with the marks of sin? And we can carry that scarred tissue for a long time, even years…
Put out your hand: some choices mean life, others mean death.

Notice the freedom of which Sirach speaks: which ever your prefer, which ever you like – you choose. You are free.
Wonderful expression of freedom: God is not a tyrant who imposes on us and tells us what we must do. No. He leaves us free to choose, but our choice has consequences.
That is where we need to reflect and discern and ask ourselves simply whether this choice brings me closer to God or distances me from God. That’s how we choose.
And if we choose to distance ourselves from God, and place ourselves in the fires of hell, that is what God will give us. Your choice, Sirach says.
If we choose the purifying and regenerating waters that to Everlasting Life, that is what God will give us, Eternal life.
We are left to choose.

The question is whether we fear God, fear God as children who love their heavenly Father, and do not wish to offend Him by choosing sin. That is the choice God leaves us with: to sin or not to sin. While he does not command us to be godless, he has not given us permission to sin, either. When we truly love someone, we have no desire to hurt or offend them – this is true with God.

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When we look at the 1st Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (2), what do you think he means when he talks about the, “hidden mysteries that God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began.” You see, from the start, God predestined each of us to the glory of salvation. That is what God wants for us. That is His way of directing us, what we refer to as Providence: God directs us toward what is good, and will lead us to Eternal glory.

However, God cannot force us to make decisions and choices against our will; so while He directs, and wants for us, eternal salvation, so we are left o choose: fire or water.
God puts before us, good and evil, life and death, heaven and hell. We are fundamentally responsible for our choices. This is what the Book of Sirach tells us, and St. Paul makes clear in his Letter to the Corinthians, God really wants us to be in glory with him for ever, but he leaves us free.

How do we show our love for someone: through our fidelity. We express our loyalty because we can choose to betray that person we claim to love, and then, our heart is directed to another, no longer the fidelity of that first love. When temptation to sin comes our way, how often we choose the fire of sin, instead of the life-giving water that God offers us.

Why is it so? We even say, “I don’t want to sin, but I repeat the same sins.” Sometimes people think their sins don’t offend God because they’re just small sins, but all sins offend God. But it’s also true, some sins are more serious than others, and in some instances, when the sin is very serious, we cannot even receive Communion. This is why we have regular Confession: to make sure that everyone is in a state of Grace as often as possible and for as long as possible. You should really make use of the confessors and the confessionals.

What happens when we are burned and we feel the scorched tissue and see the marks.
We need healing -- some ointment, a soothing balm that relieves the pain. This is what the Sacrament of Confession does: it is like an ointment that not only soothes but starts the healing process.

In our reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel (5:17-37), Jesus teaches us the radicality in following Him. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

The reaction of the pharisees and disciples to such teachings reflect the rigours demands of following  Christ: Jesus never waters down his teachings.
The radicality of the Christian life is further reflected when Jesus teaches on divorce , “It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever commits a divorced woman commits adultery.”

“Unchastity” is understood as “incest,” a violation of the Levictical teachings. Saints Mark and Luke do not make reference to the Levitical teachings. We know that the Catholic Church makes provision for annulled marriages, but in that case, the person is not married. These are the New Testament teachings of the New Covenant, we are no longer in the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. Jesus sets the bar high as He has come to fulfil the Law.

In the Old Testament we have our sexual teachings in Genesis, Exodus, and repeated in Deuteronomy; nevertheless, there was widespread polygamy. Jesus goes further than Genesis and teaches the value of celibacy by his own life; Jesus never married. And Mary and Joseph, though they married, they lived celibate lives.

Never do we find that homosexual activity is accepted in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, when dealing with the pagan cultures where homosexual activity appears, St. Paul teaches repeatedly to abandon their pagan sexuality (“unnatural”) if they want to be followers of Christ.

It’s disappointing to hear the leaders of the Church of Scotland and Church of England to abandon the Word of God for the word of man for endorsing homosexual activity in the form of samesex marriages and blessings -- this is betraying the Word of God to follow postmodern ideologies. This is not fidelity to the Gospel. Homosexual activity goes against the Natural Order, the Natural Law, even before God’s Revealed teachings. Nobody is above what God has teaches either in Natural Law or in Scriptures.

To be a Christian means we follow Christ -- as Catholics we are called to follow the radicality of the Gospel. Jesus taught us what love looks like: there, on the Cross, where He sacrificed His Body and Blood for us.

How do we do respond to this radicality as followers of Christ? We are given Grace, Jesus gives us the Graces we need. What is the point of all our prayers, of the Sacraments; why does Jesus even die on the Cross for us? So, we have the Graces we need to the call of conversion by interior transformation. That is the work of Grace.
I mean do we even have any sins left to confess if everything is permissible and justified? What did Jesus come for? For us because we are all sinners. If you are looking for love it is there on the Cross? Self-sacrifice, that is love, not self-focussed pleasure.

And one last reference to St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Whoever breaks one of these least commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus, therefore, directs his words to parents, teachers, professors, all those in the teaching ministry. We have the moral obligation to teach what is true, to lead others to holiness, and to Eternal Life. We are directed by the Word of God not the ideologies of man.

​And so, let us seek to reconcile ourselves with God and with others, by recognising our faults, asking for forgiveness, through the Sacrament of Confession, and asking for God’s mercy, so we may avoid the fires that burn and scorch us and be led to the cleansing waters of Eternal Salvation.

Father David Bellusci, OP