WEALTH WILL ROT AWAY
"The Gospel According to Matthew" is a film about the
life of Christ and was made over twenty years ago by an Italian director,
Pietro Passolini. The film wasn't very well accepted because the picture that
Passolini drew of Christ was unfamiliar to audiences. It was in Jesus' manner
of speaking - with urgency and insistency - that Passolini most clearly
distinguished Him from other portrayals in which Christ spoke in sweet and
gentle tones. The character was played with intensity that most of the time was
anything but calm and reassuring. Most of Jesus' words were delivered harshly
and accusingly. In Passolini's view, Christ was angry - almost revolutionary -
and condemned the values and structures of His time and uncompromisingly
insisted that radical, total renewal was necessary before anything good could
happen.
Jesus' expectations for us can, at times, be difficult to adhere
to and even more difficult to fulfill. He demands that we radically change our
lives by purifying our attachments to all self-seeking and pride in order that
we may attain salvation, which otherwise remains beyond our reach. There is a
cutting edge to the Scriptural readings for this weekend that seems to recall
something of the intensity of Passolini's figure of Christ. In today's Gospel,
Christ's impatient and corrective answer to the Apostles was a result of their
complaining of another person's good works. Jesus tells them that their
attachment to being recognized and honored for their accomplishments is one of
the things that need to be cut off and thrown away. Certainly the words that
Mark records as coming from the mouth of Jesus are not gentle ones.
Jesus tells His followers that if one's hand, foot, or eye
causes one to sin, cut it off or pluck it out, for it is better to enter into
life maimed, crippled, or with one eye than with two to be thrown into Gehenna,
where "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (cf. Mk
9:43 - 48). Now the point must certainly be made that by no means was Jesus
literally calling for the cutting off of hands and feet or the plucking out of
eyes, but He is certainly insisting that nothing is worth the sacrificing of
one's salvation. He makes clear that detachment from passing things and a
radical attempt to unite our values to His are necessary for eternal life.
Passolini's figure of a demanding Christ does contain a ring of
truth. God is infinitely understanding and forgiving of our human weaknesses
but He is impatient with the attitude that consistently refuses to realize that
this world belongs to Him, and it is only when we live in it on His terms that
we will truly live successfully. Jesus didn't simply cut off His hand or pluck
out His eye. Rather, He gave His whole Body as a sacrificial offering. We
celebrate that total gift of self and ultimate sacrifice right here on our
altar. Let us ask Jesus for the power to give ourselves totally to Him.
God bless you!