Dear Friends,

Besides the obvious relevance to our situation of today’s Gospel with regard to those who harm or scandalize little ones - “it would be better for him if a large millstone were put around his neck and thrown into the sea” - we can garner other important lessons.

Our Lord speaks in hyperbole when he says that if our eye or hand cause us to sin, we should remove them. Still, the lesson should not be softened too much: if we are caught in sin - especially habits of serious sin - we should be ruthless about rooting out from our lives any person, activity, or situation that we know leads us into sin. Far from simply avoiding sin, we need to hate and flee from sin. 

Whenever we are contrite for our sin and take ourselves to God’s mercy in confession, we should make sure that we come up with a very concrete,  specific plan of action regarding how we plan to modify our habits and lifestyle to avoid those sins in the future. Otherwise, can we really claim to love our Lord if we don’t fear offending His love and don’t seek to change?

In Christ,

Fr Marotti