ACC ~ Mark 9 v42 - 50

OVERVIEW:

The Fathers warn against flat literalism in interpreting this text: To follow literally the command to cut off the hand would be to fail to hear its meaning (CLEMENTINA). We are not referring to earthworms or earthly fires but unending misery over willed sin (GREGORY OF NYSSA). The dynamics of temptation work so elusively as to prevent sinners from awareness even of their own stench and illness, which others can smell easily (CHRYSOSTOM). The eye colludes in causing sin by making an entryway into the heart (SALVIAN THE PRESBYTER). Hell is not merely a rhetorical hyperbole (BASIL). The reader of the Word cannot select out comfortable passages and ignore those that make us uneasy (CHRYSOSTOM). Temporary disciplinary rejection within the church is a minor inconvenience compared with God’s final rejection of sin (CAESARIUS OF ARLES). When the sting of judgment falls, it is not to punish but to heal (METHODIUS). Those who finally reject salvation suffer eternally in both body and soul (AUGUSTINE). Our words become salt when they receive the wisdom that flows from the revealed Word, without which our hasty words may inadvertently shatter integrity (GREGORY THE GREAT).

9:42 | It Would Be Better for Him if a Great Millstone Were Hung Round His Neck and He Were Thrown into the Sea

A TERRIFYING REPETITION

AUGUSTINE: He did not shrink from using the same words three times [1] over in one passage. And who is not terrified by this repetition and by the threat of that punishment uttered so vehemently by the lips of the Lord himself? THE CITY OF GOD 21.9. [2]

[1] Augustine is asking why “it would be better for him” is repeated three times.

[2] Cetedoc 0313, 48.21.9.16; NPNF 1 2:461.

9:43 | If Your Hand Causes You to Sin, Cut It Off

LITERALLY CUT OFF?

CLEMENTINA [1] : Let none of you think, brothers, that the Lord is here commending the cutting off of members. His meaning is that the incentive should be cut off, not the members. The causes which allure to sin are to be cut off, in order that our thought, borne up on the chariot of sight, may push toward the love of God, supported by the bodily senses. So do not give loose reins to the eyes of the flesh as if you were wanton horses, eager to turn their running away from the commandments. Subject the bodily sight to the judgment of the mind. Do not permit these eyes of ours, which God intended to be viewers and witnesses of his work, to become procurers of evil desire. [2] RECOGNITIONS OF CLEMENT 7.1.37. [3]

[1] The Clementina is a collection of writings erroneously ascribed to Clement of Rome.

[2] Cf. Mt 6:23.

[3] GCS 15:215; ANF 8:165*. To follow the command literally would be to deny it.

9:45 | It Is Better for You to Enter Life Lame Than with Two Feet to Be Thrown into Hell

HELL IS NOT A HYPERBOLE

BASIL: Do not think that I am threatening you with false goblins like some mother or nurse, as they are accustomed to do with small children. Whenever the children wail wildly and incessantly, they put the children to silence by means of bogus tales. But these things I am telling you are not a fiction. Rather, they are true reason publicly proclaimed with a straightforward voice. HOMILIES 5, SAYINGS FOR A TIME OF HUNGER AND THIRST 2. [1]

[1] TLG 2040.024, 31.328.27-33.

9:47 | If Your Eye Causes You to Sin

THE COLLUSION OF THE EYE WITH SIN

SALVIAN THE PRESBYTER: Knowing that the lights of the eyes are like windows to our hearts, and that all corrupt desires enter us through the eyes, as if through a natural crevice, our Lord asks us to veil them from wandering about, in order to resist the spreading of their toxic illusions, so those illusions will not take ever firmer root in our hearts, having first budded in the eye. [1] ON THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 3.8. [2]

[1] Cf. Sir 14:9.

[2] Cetedoc 0485, 3.8.37.64; GMI 227*.

9:48a | Their Worm Does Not Die

THE SYNDROME OF UNAWARENESS

CHRYSOSTOM: Christ has killed and buried your former transgressions, like worms. How then is it that you have bred others? For sins that harm the soul are more deadly than worms which harm the body. And they make a more offensive stench. [1] Yet we do not even perceive their rankness, and so we sense no urgency to purge them out. So the drunkard fails to recognize how disgusting stale wine is, while one who is sober perceives the difference easily. So with sins: one who lives soberly sees easily the mire and the stain, but one who gives himself up to wickedness, like one made drowsy with drunkenness, does not even realize that he is ill. This is the worst aspect of evil, that it does not allow those who fall into it even to see the seriousness of their own diseased state, but as they lie in the mire, they think they are enjoying perfumes. So they do not have the slightest inclination to free themselves. And when full of worms they act like those who pride themselves in precious stones, exulting in them. For this reason they not only have no will to kill them, but they even nourish them, and multiply them in themselves, until they send them on to the worms of the age to come. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, HOMILY 40. [2]

[1] Chrysostom is puzzled by why sinners so love their sin and have no will to change.

[2] NPNF 1 9:413*; TLG 2062.155, 60.490.38-58.

9:48b | The Fire Is Not Quenched

ORDINARY FIRE AND ETERNAL FIRE

GREGORY OF NYSSA: Nor, too, does anything which afflicts the senses here equal in torment the future life of sinners. Even if we denote some of those torments by terms familiar to us here, the difference is not slight. When you hear the word “fire,” you have been taught to think of it differently from ordinary fire, since a new factor is added. For that fire is not quenched, while experience has devised many ways to quench the fire we know. And there is a great difference between fire which is quenched and that which cannot be put out. They are, therefore, different, and not the same. Then again, when a person hears the word “worm,” the analogy must not be misapplied directly from the creature we know to the eternal. For the addition of the phrase “that does not die” suggests the thought that this worm is not simply the creature we know. ADDRESS ON RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 40. [1]

[1] LCC 3:325; TLG 2017.046, 40.77-89.

WHY NOT SKIP OVER SUCH PASSAGES?

CHRYSOSTOM: This is no trivial subject of inquiry that we propose, but rather it concerns things most urgent, and about which many inquire: namely, whether hell fire has any end. For that it has no end Christ indeed declared when he said, “Their fire shall not be quenched, and their worm shall not die.” [1] Yes, I know a chill comes over you on hearing these things. But what am I to do? For this is God’s own command. … Ordained as we have been to the ministry of the word, we must cause our hearers discomfort when it is necessary for them to hear. We do this not arbitrarily but under command. HOMILIES ON FIRST CORINTHIANS 9.1. [2]

[1] Is 66:24.

[2] NPNF 1 12:49*; TLG 2062.156, 61.75.24-31, 32-34.

DISCIPLINARY REJECTION—TEMPORARY AND ETERNAL

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: If today one is cast out of the assembly of this church because of some enormity, in how much grief and tribulation will his soul be? [1] If it causes unbearable pain to be thrown out of this church, where the one who is rejected can eat and drink and speak with others and has the hope of being called back, how much more pain will there be if, because of his sins, one is separated from that church which is in heaven, and eternally separated from the assembly of the angels and the company of all the saints? For such a person it will not be enough punishment for him to be cast away, but in addition he will be shut out into the night, to be consumed by an eternal fire. One whose impenitent behavior has warranted his being finally shut out of that heavenly Jerusalem will not only be deprived of divine fellowship, but will also suffer the flames of hell, “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth,” [2] where there will be the wailing of lamentation without any remedy, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished; [3] where death would be sought as an end to torment, and not found. SERMONS 227.4. [4]

[1] Caesarius is asking how temporary disciplinary rejection within the church is to be compared with God’s final rejection of sin.

[2] Mt 22:13.

[3] Mk 9:48.

[4] Cetedoc 1008, 104.227.4.1; FC 66:166*.

9:50 | Have Salt in Yourselves

THE MEANING OF SALT

METHODIUS: According to levitical law, [1] every gift, unless it be seasoned with salt, is forbidden to be offered as an oblation to the Lord God. Now the whole spiritual meditation of the Scriptures is given to us as salt which stings in order to benefit. Without this disinfection, it is impossible for a soul, by means of reason, to be brought to the almighty. THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS 1.1. [2]

A FIT PINCH OF SALT

EPHREM THE SYRIAN:

Glory be to God on high,

Who mixed his salt in our minds,

His leaven in our souls.

His body became bread, [3]

To quicken our deadness.

HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 2. [4]

[1] Lev 2:13; Mk. 9:49-50.

[2] PG 18:40; ANF 6:311**.

[3] Cf Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19.

[4] CSCO 186-187:21; NPNF 2 13:237.

HAVING SALT IN OUR SPEECH

GREGORY THE GREAT: When the counselor prepares himself for speaking, let him bear in mind with what diligent caution he ought to speak, lest, if he is too hurried in speaking, the hearts of hearers be struck with the wound of error. Desiring to seem wise, he may unwisely sever the bond of unity. It is for this reason that the One who is truth has said: “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” [1] Now by salt is denoted the word of wisdom. Let him, therefore, who strives to speak wisely fear greatly, lest by his eloquence the integrity of his hearers be disturbed. PASTORAL CARE 4.12. [2]

ON DIVORCE MARK 10:1-12

[1] Mk 9:50.

[2] Cetedoc 1712, 2.4.56; NPNF 2 12:12**.

OVERVIEW:

God could have provided an infinite number of partners for Adam but gave him only one. Marriage is no burden when the two become equally one in all things, losing all, sharing all (TERTULLIAN). The mystery of the joining of one man and one woman in one flesh is viewed by analogy to the joining of God and humanity in the incarnation (ORIGEN). The biblical prototype of one flesh is the relation of Christ and the church (AUGUSTINE). Meanwhile, the tempter promotes a permissive view of divorce and remarriage (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, ATHENAGORAS). The Lord’s teaching on divorce applies equally to men and women (BASIL). Fornication evidences the failure of original intent in the marriage. Four adulterers can emerge from the aftermath of one marriage of two previously married spouses (AUGUSTINE). Jesus was not vexed when he was challenged by deceptive questioners who hoped more for a gaffe than an answer (ORIGEN).