Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'
But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.'
But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
Source: https://dailygospel.org/M/AM/
Analysis
Today's passage is a short but meaningful passage. The passage delivers two messages that are separate but still related. The passage opens with Jesus saying to His disciples how they have heard that they shall not commit adultery. Jesus then adds to the rule, that simply lusting over someone is already adulterous in one's heart. He then makes a disturbing analogy that if one of your body parts cause you to sin, it's better for you to go disabled without them rather than go to hell with your body intact. He then restates His teachings about adultery, saying that if you divorce your spouse, you have committed adultery as well, unless the marriage was unlawful, i.e. adulterous in the first place. Let's see what this all means.
The first part is fairly straight forward, as when one lusts after someone else it means that their heart is not directed completely at their spouse or partner. And perhaps they don't even love their spouse, they merely lust over them. If they truly love their companion, even succubi would fail to seduce them. Now even if the lusting person is unmarried, it's still a sinful act. As that means they have disrespected the other by objectifying them and turning them into a mere sexual object to satisfy their visual pleasure. Nevertheless, lusting over someone is still bad.
The next part should not be taken literally at all. Jesus is not trying to say that we should actually make ourselves blind if we lust someone with our eyes, what He wishes to say is that it is better for us to abandon things or people we hold dear that actually caused us to stray towards sin, rather than keep them and fall to hell. So, how is that connected? Body parts are something that is important for us, and they are essentially a part of us. Just like our limbs and organs, we may grow an emotional attachment to objects or perhaps people, such as friends, family, and so on. As our attachment grows stronger, they are effectively a crucial part of our lives and thus our self. However, if they cause us to sin, must we keep them? No, as then we would go down even further towards death. We must instead abandon them towards a better path. It is better for us to lose a part of ourselves and our life rather than fall into depravity.
The second message is actually stated in context of the first message of this passage. In this case, if you your eyes cause you to lust, then you should throw it out. Of course, the actual meaning would probably be like if your friend invites to look upon images that you shouldn't see, it's better to leave them at the risk of them hating you and so on. The final part of this passage is related but different from Jesus' message on adultery on the first part. Here, Jesus wishes to say that if one divorces in a marriage, unless unlawful, they too have committed adultery. This is because a marriage is supposed to be eternal, you marry someone because you truly love them and you vow to do so forever. If you don't, it's better not to marry them at all. As such when you get married and you divorce, that is proof that you don't actually love your spouse and thus it is adulterous. I believe that is all I have to say, have a nice day and see you tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment