Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time 2020

In our Gospel today (Mt 5:27-32) Jesus gives an indication how wonderful heaven is in most dramatic teachings, as someone speaking with authority and knowledge. This glory of heaven that awaits us is revealed in the hyperbole Jesus uses - tearing out, cutting off - to stress the lengths we should take to protect ourselves from the sins that would keep us from heaven. To give some perspective, consider the grueling training an Olympic athlete endures for the opportunity to win a medal and stand atop a dais for a few minutes. If a moment of sports glory is worth thousands of hours of training, conditioning, and painful injuries, the drastic steps Jesus suggests we take to avoid sin should give us a sense of the splendor of heaven.