Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward. If your hand or foot or eye auses you to sin, cut it off or pluck it out; for it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands, or lame than with two foot or with two eyes to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
The first sentence of the above said two sentences is very much encouraging for Christians. It says that Jesus blesses and helps those people who acepts and helps the Christians who are proclaiming the word of God. Since many of the Christians in the early period of Christianity renounced everything to proclaim the good news the promise of reward motivated them and gave them hope and courage.
In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the early Christians had no private property. Everything was common for them. What they had, they shared among themselves. Each one got what it required. Every support encouraged them and gave them happiness and strength. Thus a radical selflessness und togetherness were preacticed by Christians at that time. Such a radical way of life is not expected from the Christians today. We do not think it to be practical today. But the attitude of the Christians may be similar. Christians are expected to be selfless.
But the second sentence is a warning against the sin, failure and mistakes of the Christian’s who fail to practice their faith and morality. We are expected to be committed, sincere, genuine and truthful to our call to follow Jesus and to proclaim the kingdom of God. Each Christin should think and act without compromise for correctness and realness, they are supposed to implement it. Each one should be courageous to keep away from the situation of sin, should be ready to renounce the advantage of it even by loosing hand, foot or eye namely a total renouncement is demanded and a total commitment is expected.
If some people mean that such a radical renouncement is not needed, then it will be difficult to define the Christian life and it will be difficult to show how to practice the commandment of Jesus. Detachment and commitment are two important virtues of the discipleship of Jesus. Without these principles it will be difficult to follow Jesus.
The problem today is that we do not take serious the warning of Jesus. Sometimes we think that we do not need to take the message of Jesus literally. That is correct too. But very often in such a way of thinking we usually dilute the message of Jesus or sometimes we fully ignore the message of Jesus. I think we should take the words of Jesus seriously and try to impliment his commandments in order to proclaim and to establish the kingdom of God.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS