Purification or punishment? 7th Thursday of the year

“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Everyone will be salted with fire.” (Mk 9:47-49)

A serious interpretation of these words does not equal a literal interpretation. The church has never advised self-mutilation as a means to salvation. Obviously feet, hands or eyes do not make us sin. Rather, we practice either  virtue or sin through their use. But  if we are not take these words literally, then how should we interpret them to take them seriously?

Gehenna is probably a compound word derived from Hebrew ge-hinnom, for Valley of Hinnom, the dumping grounds of Jerusalem where a continuous fire consumed everyone’s refuse. Popularly the imagery of fire has been associated with punishment because burning is painful. But that is not what the Biblical language suggests.

Fire, in the Scriptures, is often linked with purfication. Fire burns what is flammable, and often impure, but respects what is inflammable. And so gold is purified through fire because fire will burn the impurities leaving behind only pure gold.

Amputation is, however, an image of punishment in the Old Testamen (Dt 25:12). In other words, what this text seems to imply to someone familiar with the Jewish practices and the customs of Jerusalem is, it is better to be punished in time (even if it is through mutilation) than to be definitively wasted (like Jerusalem’s refuse).

The symbol of salt seems to be linked, according to some scholars, to Lv 2:13 where salt that accompannies sacrifices is described as “salt of the covenant with your God” and similarly in Ex 30:35, salt is associated wit the qualities “pure and holy”. So, how should we read “to be salted with fire”?

It seems to point out to the fact that if the sinner has to be pure and holy (salted), which is a necessity (v. 50), one must either enter the Kingdom of God through timely punishment or through a fiery purification that will eventually purify us, although through a more regretable process.

This Joyful Season of Lent!

“Each year You give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery.” This is how the first preface of Lent prepares for this special liturgical time. However we are not used to associating Lent with joy. Can we put on sackcloth and ashes and still be exultant with joy? To answer that question, we need to ask ourselves what the real meaning of Lent is. We need to push ourselves beyond the meaning of penance understood as a self-inflicted suffering pleasing to God. What mother would be pleased at her child’s self-inflicted suffering to please her?

When I was learning to ride the bicycle, I always had my father supporting me with his strong hand, making sure I kept my balance. This went on for a few days, until one day, I’m not sure if it was because my father got tired or because it was time for me to move on, my father decided to check if I could keep my balance on my own. There was only one way to know: letting me go without his support. When Satan told God that Job was only faithful to him because he had many blessings, there was only one way to find out: letting all those blessings go. Sure enough, Job, without family, without riches, without friends and in total confusion was tested to see where the real limits of his fidelity were.

Lenten observances are, before anything else, a test, a way to know. Did the people of Israel love God because God liberated them, or because they genuinely loved Him? There was only one way to know: 40 years in the desert proved that every time the blessings from God fell short, the people of Israel murmured. Did Jesus love the Father above everything else? 40 days in the desert proved that his love for the Father could resist the temptations of the devil.

The difference between traditional Jewish penance and the penance that Jesus advised is reward. We like to be liked. We like to be appreciated and admired. But what if we did not get that reward? Would we do things without any reward at all? Just because we like to do them? There is only one way to find out. The church invites us to do that for 40 days in solidarity with all those who have not enough (alms) to test ourselves (fast) and our how genuine our love for God is (prayer). We give up the little pleasures of life, not because they are bad, but unless we give them up, we will never know if they are the ones that fill our lives and bring us happiness, or if the happiness in our lives is grounded only in God.

Lent is then a period of testing, not for approval or failure, but just to know better where exactly we are standing before God. If this is the case, there is some joy in finding the truth about our hearts so that we can do something about it. Lent should then be a joyful season indeed. Is there a way of finding some agreement between the joy of Lent and the joy of the Lunar New Year? Do we need to revise our misconceptions of Lent?

Happy Ash Wednesday!!!