Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
Jesus seems to be a bit hard on the new set of rules that He
is proposing to live a better moral life. Initially when I read this I too felt
the same. How can I think of cutting off my body parts? When I reflected
further I felt that I should take it into real consideration. Jesus mentions adultery and the sanctity of
the sacrament of marriage. We read in the first letter of St. Paul to the
Corinthians 3: 16-17 "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that
God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy
that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple".
As God the Holy Spirit lives in us we need to care for our
body and soul with utmost care. We need to treat our body with respect and
dignity. We can't pollute this body with alcohol, drugs, smoking or having sex
outside marriage. We also can't spoil our mind with negative thoughts or fill
our hearts with impurity. What we need
to have is purity of body, mind, heart and soul.
We as human beings know that we are fragile and can easily
fall into various temptations. But always we should remember that Jesus has
already conquered evil. He has purified all of us through His precious blood.
But how many of us believe this? Only by accepting this truth can we be saved.
In our difficulties and struggles let us hold on to Jesus
and only He can bring about proper solutions to all our problems. There are
many people who have sacrificed not just their body parts but their whole life
itself for the sake of Christ. They have done this with the hope of being with
Him in heaven one day. Let us also live a life seeing our death ahead so that
we can stay away from sins and be with him in heaven for eternity. Let us be
holy as Jesus is holy.
Reflection on Matthew 5: 27-32 by Fr. George Joseph SVD
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