Homily originally presented September 30, 2018

Get rid of anything that will lead you to Hell!

Little 10-year -old Timmy was helping out in his dad’s machine shop one Saturday,

when he got hurt in a terrible accident.

His left hand got caught in some machine gears and was severely mangled.

They rushed him to the hospital but the doctors were unable to repair it ...

so they amputated his hand.

When he awoke after surgery, his Mom and Dad were there in the room with him and they were overwhelmed with grief at Timmy’s loss of his hand.

When Timmy saw his Mom crying, he made the remark:

“It’s ok Mom ... I won’t be needing my hand in Heaven!”

Wow!          What a graced remark!

What an insightful thing for a 10-year-old to even think of ... and believe.

What a comforting thing for his troubled Parents to hear him say.

It’s ok Mom ... I won’t be needing my hand in Heaven!

Not only did Timmy’s remark indicate ...

that he had every intention of going to Heaven ...

it also showed his understanding ...

that he wouldn’t be needing ... any body parts ... in order to live there!

How true that is!

You see, once we’re in Heaven, we won’t need anything at all ...

for we’ll be with Almighty God ... who is all in all.

We won’t need anything physical ...

we won’t need our eyes or our ears, our tongue or our nose ...

we won’t need our hands or our feet.

That’s because our immortal soul will be united with God who is pure Spirit.

And our existence will become one of sheer happiness ...

because we will be with Him ... who is Love Itself.

So you see, there is no part of our body that we will ever need for Heaven.

Understanding this will help us to grasp what Jesus tells us

in today’s short Gospel passage from Mark chapter 9.

Here, Jesus alludes to Heaven once ... and then speaks 3 times of “Gehenna” …

a Hebrew name that the Jews used to refer to a place of eternal punishment … the place that we call Hell. 

As in all the Gospels, Jesus spoke more about Hell … than He spoke about Heaven!

Do you believe in Hell?            There are quite a few people who don’t, you know.   

But Jesus does ...

and He spoke about it often ... because He doesn’t want us to go there.

“Gehenna”, which is Hell, is a place of eternal torment and suffering.

What does eternal mean?         It means; “ever present” it means: “never ending”.

Today Jesus describes Gehenna as the place:

“where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

Here Jesus uses the very words that the Prophet Isaiah used 500 years earlier ...

when Isaiah concluded his book of the Bible writing,

“They shall go out and see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me;

their worm shall not die, nor their fire be extinguished.”   (Isa. 66:24)

That’s  Gehenna ... the place of unquenchable and perpetual fires.

Jesus speaks of it 12 times in the New Testament.

Yet, there are people today who deny that Hell exists ...

which is their way of saying that Hell is too horrible a place to even think about!

And so ... many people don’t think about it.

But that’s not good!

We need to think about Hell: Jesus wants us to think about Hell.

Why? ... so we avoid it!

Consider this: if you were a golfer playing a new course, you’d appreciate

the Caddie telling you where all the sand and water hazards are.

Why?                   So you can avoid ‘em!

So you can do everything in your power to keep from ending up in the hazard.

It’s the same with Hell ... it’s an awful hazard ... and you need to know it’s there.

Why?          So you can do everything in your power to miss it ...

and stay on the course to Heaven.

Yes, Hell exists ... whether you believe in it or not.

We acknowledge that Hell exists each time we profess our Creed and say of Jesus:

 “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”

If everyone went to Heaven, there wouldn’t be any need for judgment would there?

Our Catechism puts it this way:

“We can only be united with God if we freely choose to love Him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely: against Him, against our neighbor or against ourselves. To die in Mortal sin without repenting and without accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from Him forever by our own free choice.”

So today you’ve heard ... from Sacred Scripture & the Church that Hell exists!

And how many Mortal sins does it take to go to Hell?             One!

Don’t kid yourself into thinking that just because you’re doing several good things

... that the grave sin you’re also doing won’t send you to Hell.

It will!   One Mortal sin cuts you off from the Divine Life of God!

Consider those strings of Christmas Lights that you’ll be pulling out in 2 months to light your Christmas Tree and outdoor Bushes. Some of those sets of lights are wired in series which means that if one light goes out ... they all go out.

How many bad lights does it take to cut off power to the whole set?      One!

One bad light brings darkness to the whole set of 50!

It’s the same with the Soul.

While Venial Sins weaken the flow of Divine Life in us ...

one Mortal Sin cuts off the flow of Divine Life in us!

(Adultery, Fornication, Masturbation, Killing, Stealing, Doing Drugs, Missing Mass)

If we die in Mortal Sin, we will be cut off from God forever ...

our soul will be in Hell.

So awful would this destiny be ...  that Jesus, who died to redeem us,

tells us to take drastic action to insure we don’t commit Mortal sins.

Today, He warns us to turn away from whatever it is that causes us to sin …

to the degree that we would  literally cut off any body part ...

that continues to cause us to fall into sin.

Hell must be unbelievably awful for Jesus to suggest such drastic action as this.

Hear how Jesus describes Hell ... He calls it ... unquenchable fire!

Those poor residents in California have been battling Forest fires for weeks

and they’ve suffered significant damage to their homes and property.

But one day soon ... those fires will go out ... they will end.

Damage has been done, but the fires will finally be put out & they’ll have relief.

Not so in Hell!   The fires there are unquenchable ... they will never go out!

How horrible!

This indicates that there will be actual sensory suffering in Hell ... and that those parts of our body that caused us to sin will be burned in a never-ending fire.

Jesus warns us that we don’t want to go to Hell.

And He tells us to take whatever action is necessary

to insure that we don’t end up there.

Today, Jesus tells us to cut off those body parts that make us fall into sin.

Is your foot taking you to places where you can get alcohol, drugs or pills ...

     so you can get drunk or high?

• Cut it off … for it’s better to enter Heaven with 1 foot than enter Hell with 2!

Is your hand causing you to steal things or to abuse others?

• Cut it off … for it’s better to enter Heaven with 1 hand than enter Hell with 2!

Is your eye causing you to look at pornography ...

so you lust & perform impure acts?

• Pluck it out for it’s better to enter Heaven with 1 eye than enter Hell with 2!

Please recognize how serious this is.

Some people, like 10-year -old Timmy ... lose parts of their body by accident.

But Jesus is telling us ... to get rid of parts of our body by intention ...

any body part that is ...  that is causing us to commit mortal sin!

Now, I’d like to temper that for all the children and young people here.

Jesus is not asking you to harm yourself.     So please don’t consider doing

any cutting or plucking of your body.    If TV or Video games is your downfall ... cut it out. If you’re spending too much time on the computer... cut it out.

But don’t do anything to yourself. Jesus is speaking strongly because he wants all of us to understand how serious sin is ... so we don’t suffer from doing bad things.

We need to stop doing whatever is sinful … because to continue in sin

    is jeopardizing our chance for Heaven ... and assuring our arrival in Hell.

Fear works for me!         I believe in Hell and I sure don’t want to go there!

And it’s not just the fire that motivates me to avoid it at all costs … it’s the fact that I’d be in eternal torment knowing that I was offered Heaven and ended up in Hell!

That’s a regret that will never ever go away …

there, you’ll have forever to consider the fact that:

God offered you Heaven ...  and you ended up in Hell!

You know, there’s a difference between Northern Baptists and Southern Baptists.

Northern Baptists say, “There ain’t no hell.”

Southern Baptists say, “Hell there ain’t!”

Southern Baptists believe in Hell  ... and we Catholics believe in Hell too!

Jesus spoke of it and begged us to avoid it ... and we believe Him.

Hell is nothing to kid about.   Hell is real!           Hell exists!

And Hell is the eternal destiny for those who sin gravely against God ...

and fail to repent and make amends.

If you believe in Hell, then you’re on the road to avoiding it, because you’ll make decisions and choices that will insure that you don’t go there.

But if you don’t believe in Hell, then you’re a sitting duck for the devil,

who delights in people not believing in Hell, because

then they’ll act as if there were no bad eternal consequences to what they do.

Let’s take heed of Jesus’ warnings and seek the grace to turn away from sin,

to cut off ... and pluck out ... any body parts that lead us to sin.

Because as little Timmy told us,       you won’t be needing them ... in Heaven!