6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes
Once upon a time, a man lived in a cabin on a snowy mountain slope. He liked to go hiking and would climb up to the peak every week. He would rest on the mountain top and take in the sights. He also liked to make snowballs and toss them down the slope, watching them grow bigger and bigger as they rolled. But upon returning to his cabin he would always find it buried in snow and say to himself: “Oh my, golly gee, why does this keep happening to me?” Time and again, he had to shovel out his front door and windows, and though the sun helped melt the snow, it was still a lot of work. He brought his problem to prayer and the Lord gave him insight.
“Your snowballs are causing the avalanches.”
— “Lord, does this mean that I have to live someplace else?”
“No.”
— “Does this mean I have to stop climbing the mountain?”
“Not necessarily. Just stop tossing snowballs down the slopes.”
— “Okay Lord, but I worry that if I go up there I won’t be able to resist the temptation.”
“Then perhaps go hiking elsewhere.”
This story is a parable about us and our sins. When people lament to me in Confession about repeatedly confessing the same sins, I encourage them: “Thank goodness it’s not random sins every time — the sin of gossip one week and then arson the next — that would be hopeless!” For better or worse, we are creatures of habit. The good thing about this is that we can examine ourselves, understand our patterns of sin, and act to change our sinful habits. And Jesus tells us that turning away from sin is extremely important:
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.”
But does Jesus really want for us to gouge out our eyes and cut off our hands? If your eye really were the cause of your sin, you should pluck it out; but your eye is not really the cause of your sin, any more than the mountain hiker’s cabin was causing the avalanche problem. Yet if sin is so gravely serious that Jesus teaches that (in theory) even body parts should be sacrificed to avoid it, how much more should lesser things which cause us to sin be discarded and left behind?
The season of Lent begins this Wednesday. What are your sins and what patterns do you see in them? In what ways do you toss snowballs down your mountain? Let your answers guide your goals with our Lord this Lent.
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