Bishop Scott Bullock
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
The 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 29, 2024

A certain aboriginal tribe in Australia traditionally sent its young men into the wilderness to prepare for manhood. The legend is told of one such youth who hiked into a beautiful valley, green with trees, lush with flowers and there he began fast. On the third day though, he looked up from the valley to a high mountain and said to himself while looking at one particularly rugged snow capped peak , “I’m going to test myself by climbing that mountain.” 

When he reached the peak, he stood at the top of the world he thought. He could see forever, and his heart filled with pride and amazement that he was so powerful. Then he heard a rustle at his feet, and he saw a snake there. Before he could move, the snake spoke. It said, “I am about to die. It is too cold for me up here and I am freezing. There is no food, and I am starving. Put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley.” 

“No,” said the youth. “I’ve been forewarned. I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite, and you’ll try to kill me.” 

“Not so,” said the snake. “I will treat you differently. If you’ll but do this for me you will be special. I will not harm you.” 

The youth resisted awhile, but the snake was so persuasive and was marked with beautiful colors that at last, the youth tucked the snake in his shirt and carried it down to the warm valley, and there he laid it gently on the grass. Then suddenly the snake coiled, rattled, and leapt, and bit him on the leg. “But you promised,” cried the youth. 

But the snake said in reply, “You knew what I was when you picked me up,” as it slithered away.

This legend speaks of a universal truth — if we’ll admit it — that inscribed in our hearts is an experience we all know. Across the course of our lives, we’ll keep going back to choices and actions that have, again and again, bit us with their venom, but we’ll allow them to convince our hearts, over and over again, that this time things will be different. That this time their glamor will deliver their promises. This time they will satisfy rather than harm. This time they won’t bite us with their poison.

It is the essence of Jesus’ teaching, his compassionate teaching which we just heard, when he speaks about our hand, our foot, and our eye, all of which can seduce us into repeated choices that will cause us to sin.  Jesus’ teaching is essentially this: you know that choice is going to bite and poison you! Cut it off rather than let it cause you pain and take life from you both in this world and in the next.

So, Jesus’ wisdom comes down to this: there are simply some things we cannot do or we’re going to fall.  So Jesus says, with his compassionate heart, cut those off so that I can lead you to peace. 

So, we’re asked today to consider, how have our hands, our feet, and our eyes lead us into deadly things that keep us from loving fully?  For example, how have we used our hands to feed deadly addictions of food and drink that compromise our health, harm relationships, and keep us from the vital gift of life that we have been given?  Jesus says cut off these actions of your hands.

Or how have we used our feet to walk into relationships where we look upon others with envy and even hatred. Poisoned relationships with difficult choices. Jesus says Cut off these actions of our feet!  

Or how have we used our eyes with computers and mobile devices, for example, to search for degrading, even pornographic images that deaden our souls and contribute to deadly, short-lived lives of those who work in those industries? Jesus says: no pluck those out. Cut those eyes out so that you might live more fully. All of these deadly sins then, the ones we know from our faith, are like them — we choose them, and we don’t live fully. Jesus says, not cut them off. Cut them out of your life and live. 

So, friends, the truth is we’ve grabbed a hold of patterns that are like poisonous rattlesnakes. We let them convince us, over and over again, that they are not what they are — poison to our souls and poison to our lives! Jesus, Jesus the merciful Jesus, with love, they’re harming you and relationships. Don’t listen to their empty promises. Cut them off.  

Lord, help us to see these deadly things for what they are and then give us the strength of the spirit and love we need to cut them out of our lives and live as a result. Enough of their venom. Let’s come to the Lord himself not at this altar. Jesus, who is the great anti-venom and serum of life, who helps us see deadly things for what they are and then gives us the strength to cut them out so we can live.