Daily Gospel Reflection

Take Custody of Your Eyes

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant where we're exploring the genius of the gospel and its radical invitation for us to live very differently than people in the secular world today. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 verses 27 through 32. "You've heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell. It was also said whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

What jumps out at you? A lot of controversial issues there, especially in our day and age. Of theTen Commandmentss, two commandments are dedicated to this one issue. Jesus said, "But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Our eyes, what we see, what we consume with our eyes is a very, very powerful effect clearly on our soul, on our ability to live in truth, on our ability to absorb wisdom. When I read this, I think about the story in Genesis, Adam and Eve in the garden and the temptation. And what we read there is that Adam and Eve looked at the fruit and they saw that it was desirable. And that's really important step in that process of temptation. They looked at the fruit. They didn't just take it and just grab it off the tree. They looked at it. They pondered it. They meditated on it.

And the reality is, very often in our lives, we're looking at the wrong things. We're pondering the wrong things. We're meditating on the wrong things. And so today is an invitation to take back custody of our eyes, to be really mindful of what are we looking at, and what is that causing us to think about, to ponder, to meditate upon? Have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, or that God created you to be.