“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than
with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43).
Here we see the importance of avoiding occasions of falling into sin or of getting lost and
finding ourselves far from God. Whatever scandalizes us and is an occasion for falling
away from God, we should cut off and sacrifice. It is better to enter into life maimed,
lame, or with only one eye than to be thrown into hell with two hands, two feet, and two
eyes. We are to make sacrifices and lose things, friends, opportunities, and honors to
keep from falling away from God. This is how a Christian is to act. A foolish person,
however, protects himself, refusing all sacrifices, and in his foolishness he falls
continually. He is not careful about his life. He lives carelessly and negligently. He is
not vigilant. A foolish person does not try to live soberly and piously in this age (Titus
2:12).
The world is full of things that cause us fall away from God and forget him. In
the area of food there are, for example, delicacies that harm our health and are eaten only
for pleasure. These are also occasions for forgetting God, for putting something into our
heart that competes with God for our attention. This is why the Desert Fathers and strict
monks during the most fervent periods of their history renounced such things. They
made this sacrifice in order to live only for God in every aspect of their life. They
wanted to keep the love of their heart for him alone. So they cut off their hand and foot
and plucked out their eye in order not to fall away from him.
Television and movies are also an occasion for falling away from God, for they
show every kind of image that fouls our mind, memory, and imagination and distracts us
from God and from a sober, just, and pious life in this age (Titus 2:12). They cause us to
fall away from a life that renounces ungodliness and worldly desires (Titus 2:12) to live
in eager expectation and preparation for the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ (Titus 2:13). St. Paul tells us that we are “to keep the commandment unstained
and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:14).
Imprudent friendships are another occasion for falling away from God. They are
dangerous because the heart can fall in love and thus become divided and thereby be in
great anguish and agony. If one is celibate, he loses the joy and benefit of his celibacy,
which is having an undivided heart, reserved for the Lord alone. A person can lose all his
peace on this dangerous road and be separated from God. A wise person will sacrifice
imprudent friendships. It will be a difficult sacrifice, like cutting off a hand, a foot, or
plucking out an eye, but it is necessary to protect the heart from this danger and to enter
into the fullness of life.
Useless trips undertaken without need or purpose but simply for the pleasure of
wandering about and spending time are another occasion for falling away. We are to
sacrifice this too if we want to have an undivided heart in our relationship with God.
This is why stability is one of the most important monastic vows. Monks always live in
same place and furthermore live within a monastic enclosure. They are not to needlessly
wander about.
18
God is everywhere. He is within our hearts. Why then do so many people not
experience him? It is because they do not hide themselves with him in their heart, but
rather are always outside, wandering about through the world and its pleasures. To
experience God in the depth of our heart, we have to hide ourselves in our heart with him
and leave the world and its pleasures behind, for they only distract us from him. We
must sacrifice the pleasures and delights of the world and hide ourselves in silence. The
good things of the world are important in the first step of a spiritual life. They reveal to
us the goodness of God. But to advance further in our quest of God, we must take the
path of sacrifice of the good things of this world and seek God within, sacrificing
unnecessary external pleasures as distractions which only divide our heart from an
undivided love of God.
Contemplative prayer is a whole way of life and includes every aspect of our life.
It includes how we spend our time, and how we live in this world. It includes our whole
lifestyle. It includes all the sacrifices that we make to be contemplatives. It includes
cutting off our hand and foot and plucking out our eye that scandalize us. Contemplative
prayer also includes hiding ourselves in silence with God, seated in darkness in the prayer
of the heart. If we live in this way, we will experience God in the depth of our heart, and
we will not have to wander about, looking for him outside.
So “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life
maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43).
BIBLE FACTS - A blog that tells about the facts in the bible and gives inspirational quotes
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Experiencing God in the Heart
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