Perhaps the best summary of today's readings is orthopraxis is more important than orthodoxy. For those who might be scratching their heads thinking, "Ortho.. what?", orthodoxy refers to believing and professing the right things. In terms of Christianity, it is professing correct doctrine. Orthopraxis, by contrast, refers to doing the right thing.
Having spent many years of my adult life studying theology, I'd be one of the last to assert that doctrine doesn't matter. But Christian doctrine is a communication, a conversation, one illumined by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Doctrine is regulative, not prescriptive. This is something for another time.
Ideally, orthodoxy should lead to orthopraxis. In reality, it very often doesn't. You see, those people who get hung up orthodoxy generally tend to do so at the expense of orthopraxy. At root, this was the issue between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. Orthodoxy, when understood properly, is but a means to the end of orthopraxis. Put in the form of a question, What is the purpose of believing the correct things if it doesn't prompt you to do the right things?
It's interesting that in Mark's Gospel Jesus asserts that "whoever is not against us is for us" (Mark 9:40). Matthew's Gospel has Jesus saying, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:30). It's an interesting contrast but I am not going to explore it here. Suffice it to say, Jesus's insistence in today's Gospel that whoever is not against him is for him is (dare I say?) a more liberal attitude.
Many non-Christians, even many people who are agnostics and atheists, perform good works, engage in what we as Catholics classify as the Corporal Works of Mercy. Jesus assures us (and them, whether they care or not) that their reward for so doing will not be lost.
The essence of prophecy is not to magically predict the future. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, prophets call(ed) God's People back to fidelity with their covenant. Whether in the Old Testament or, as our epistle reading from James amply demonstrates, in the New Testament, this amounts to helping those in need, looking out for the least among us, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The passage in our Gospel today about cutting off or plucking out parts of the body prone to sinning is an example of hyperbole. Jesus is not urging his followers to engage in self-destructive, maiming or crippling, behavior. Rather, he is trying to dramatically highlight the importance of following God's way of compassion and self-sacrificing service, the way of love of neighbor.
Ghenna is a valley or ravine to the west and southwest of Jerusalem. It was in Ghenna that some of Judah's kings sacrificed their children with fire (see Jeremiah 7:31 & 19:2-6- "Ben-hinnom" is Ghenna).
One does not need to posit an eternal hell of cartoon proportions. Rather, to live in accord with what the law of God commands (loving our neighbor- the one in need of our help) is to make God's Kingdom a present reality. Failure or refusal to live this way is to create and perpetuate a kind of hell, which we can see virtually every night on the evening news.
Who are you for? What are you about?
Before anyone gets discouraged, thinking "Well, what's the point of the whole Christian thing? Why belong to a church, participate in worship, study the faith, etc.?", it is important to point out that knowing Jesus is about so much more than just a mandate, even when that mandate is to act compassionately towards others. It stands to reason that one need not be a Christian to demonstrate compassion through works of mercy.
Anyone who has truly encountered the Risen Lord can tell you why it matters. Better yet, s/he exhibits how knowing Jesus makes a difference to the whole of life. While, in my experience, there are plenty of advantages, for lack of a better term, that flow from knowing Jesus, it isn't about or even mainly about what I get out of this relationship.
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