The Gospel, in very strong language, reminds us to eliminate from our lives those things which cause us to commit sin, which can be different things to different people. Jesus reminds those who are listening that eliminating sinful behavior is often an enormous challenge because any change in life can be difficult as we are all well aware.

The challenge is to purge our lives of sinful behavior at the very beginning when it is obvious where this behavior is leading us. A simple example would be for a young person to stop smoking knowing what the long-term effect would be even before it becomes a destructive habit. We certainly know the difference between right and wrong and when the wrong rears its ugly head the time to end it is immediately.

Jesus used the gross and severe examples of eliminating the bad things to remind us that He knows how difficult it can be. The saving grace is, of course, that we are not abandoned by God and left to face our demons alone. Rather through prayer and staying close to Jesus by virtue of the sacraments, we can keep evil at bay.

Christ admonishes us in many parables never to abandon our faith in God knowing with great certainty that God will not abandon us in the face of the personal challenges that sin does to us all.

In Christ,