Matthew 18:1-14
Observances: Clare of Assisi (d. 1252); John Henry Newman, cardinal and theologian (d. 1890)
Discussions about hell are, for good reason, some of the most uncomfortable we can have in the Church. And because of this, we seem not to have those discussions very often. What is most uncomfortable, however, is that our Lord is the one person in the Bible who spoke about it the most.
In today’s portion of St Matthew’s Gospel, the reference to hell is in the context of the great privelige believers have: “their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 18:10) Jesus is speaking about little children, and comparing them to the citizens of the kingdom of heaven (in fact, he speaks in a way that seems to teach us that the two are the same, such is the degree of similarity).
This is the way of Christ. He draws our minds to the glorious wonder of the state of the believer. And he contrasts that with the misery of the alternative.
Does he do this because he really wants us not to go to hell? Or does he really want us to be with him in heaven? Or is it both at the same time?
It is a story of two extremes. It is one or the other. God is not interested in meeting us half-way. He wants to shower us with the complete fulfilment of joy and riches he has for us. It is not enough for God to wave the pudding under our nose so that we can get a sniff; he wants to bring us into the feasting hall and dine with him.
Jesus, as God incarnate, knows the rapturous delight on offer to us, and how it cannot exist side-by-side with anything else. God is unique; his pleasures are unique. And so our Lord tells us that if a bit of our body causes us to sin, cut it off for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Not that we should literally perform the surgery; but we should be so zealous for God and our enjoyment of him that we should get rid of everything that stands between us and him.
Our finite, dusty human minds cannot fully comprehend the true depth and breadth of what it means that God loves us and wants us to be happy. But our Lord encourages us to pursue it no matter what. Our challenge for today is, then, to do the hard work of checking our heart, to find what is causing us to stumble, and asking the Holy Spirit for help to cut it out and throw it away, so that we may perceive better the wonder of God’s pleasure over us.