From: Mark 9:41-50
Scandal
[42] “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would
be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were
thrown into the sea. [43] And 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 unquencha-
ble fire. [45] And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to en-
ter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. [47] And if your eye causes
you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one
eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, [48] where their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched. [49] For every one will be salted with fire. [50] Salt
is good; but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in
yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
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Commentary:
41. The value and merit of good works lies mainly in the love of God with which
they are done: “A little act, done for love, is worth so much” (St. J. Escriva, “The
Way”, 814). God regards in a special way acts of service to others, however small
“Do you see that glass of water or that piece of bread which a holy soul gives to
a poor person for God’s sake; it is a small matter, God knows, and in human judg-
ment hardly worthy of consideration: God, notwithstanding, recompenses it, and
forthwith gives for it some increase of charity” (St Francis de Sales, “Treatise on
the Love of God”, book 2, chap. 2).
42. “Scandal is anything said, done or omitted which leads another to commit sin”
(”St Pius X Catechism”, 417). Scandal is called, and is, diabolical when the aim of
the scandal-giver is to provoke his neighbor to sin, understanding sin as offense
against God. Since sin is the greatest of all evils, it is easy to understand why
scandal is so serious and, therefore, why Christ condemns it so roundly. Causing
scandal to children is especially serious, because they are so less able to defend
themselves against evil. What Christ says applies to everyone, but especially to
parents and teachers, who are responsible before God for the souls of the young.
43. “Hell”, literally “Gehenna” or “Ge-hinnom”, was a little valley south of Jerusa-
lem, outside the walls and below the city. For centuries it was used as the city
dump. Usually garbage was burned to avoid it being a focus of infection. Gehen-
na was, proverbially, an unclean and unhealthy place: our Lord used this to ex-
plain in a graphic way the unquenchable fire of hell.
43-48. After teaching the obligation everyone has to avoid giving scandal to o-
thers, Jesus now gives the basis of Christian moral teaching on the subject of “oc-
casions of sin” — situations liable to lead to sin. He is very explicit: a person is ob-
liged to avoid proximate occasions of sin, just as he is obliged to avoid sin itself;
as God already put it in the Old Testament: “Whoever lives in danger will perish by
it” (Sir 3: 26-27). The eternal good of our soul is more important than any temporal
good. Therefore, anything that places us in proximate danger of committing sin
should be cut off and thrown away. By putting things in this way our Lord makes
sure we recognize the seriousness of this obligation.
The Fathers see, in these references to hands and eyes and so forth, people who
are persistent in evil and ever-ready to entice others to evil behavior and erro-
neous beliefs. These are the people we should distance ourselves from, so as to
enter life, rather than accompany them to hell (St Augustine, “De Consensu Evan-
gelistarum”, IV, 16; St John Chrysostom, “Hom. on St Matthew”, 60).
44. “Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched”: these words
constituting v. 44 are not in the better manuscripts. They are taken from Isaiah 66:
24 and are repeated as a kind of refrain in vv. 46 (omitted for the same reason as
v. 44) and 48. Our Lord uses them to refer to the torments of hell. Often “the worm
that does not die” is explained as the eternal remorse felt by those in hell; and the
“fire which is not quenched,” as their physical pain. The Fathers also say that both
things may possibly refer to physical torments. In any case, the punishment in
question is terrible and unending.
49-50. “Every one will be salted with fire.” St Bede comments on these words:
“Everyone will be salted with fire, says Jesus, because spiritual wisdom must pu-
rify all the elect of any kind of corruption through carnal desire. Or he may be
speaking of the fire of tribulation, which exercises the patience of the faithful to
enable them to reach perfection” (St Bede, “In Marci Evangelium expositio, in
loc.”).
Some codices add: “and every sacrifice will be salted with salt”. This phrase in
Leviticus (2:12), prescribed that all sacrificial offerings should be seasoned with
salt to prevent corruption. This prescription of the Old Testament is used here to
teach Christians to offer themselves as pleasing victims, impregnated with the
spirit of the Gospel, symbolized by salt. Our Lord’s address, which arises out of
a dispute over who is the greatest, ends with a lesson about fraternal peace and
charity. On salt which has lost its taste cf. note on Mt 5:13.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.