Gospel Reflection for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.

Jesus teaches us in this Gospel just how serious sin is. This warning of his comes as a faint voice in a wilderness of sin: wars, hatred, broken families, addiction and despair. 

My own response to this gospel must be to take a long, hard look at my own sin and go from there. I find excuses for myself, I wriggle out of blaming myself for anything, nothing is ever my fault! O dear. I seem to resist any suggestion that I am a sinner in need of repentance and his mercy. That realization at least is a wake-up call to reform my life. As C.S. Lewis said: hell is locked from the inside. To reform the world I must start reforming myself.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your kindness.

In your compassion, blot out my offence. (Psalm 51)