I once read somewhere that Jesus told us to take a “no prisoners approach” to sin. And though it may sound strange, I don’t how much clearer this could be after reading today’s Gospel.

That is why, in one of the most graphic and strongest ways possible, Jesus calls us to not just account for our sin, but to do everything in our power to root it out, to cut off our hands, our foot, or to pluck out our eyes.

Granted, He does not mean it literally, the way an early Church Father by the name of Origen took it, but to do everything in our power to fight against it, to realize that, indeed, we are engaged in a spiritual battle, with an enemy who does not play fair, an enemy who does not play by the rules, and one who will find any way to cause us to fail, any way to lead us away from God, and not just lead us away temporarily, but eternally, where as Jesus puts it: “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

Because, whether we believe it or not, our souls are a spiritual commodity, and while God wants to see each and every one of ours with Him again, we have the choice as to whether or not that will happen.

That is why Jesus is so clear and so serious, because, despite what we think, despite what we believe, just as there is a Heaven there is also a Gehenna, a place outside of Jerusalem that earned an evil reputation where human sacrifices were made of children, involving fire, a place that Jesus equates with what we call Hell.

Now, in the past, when someone would get up here and preach on the reality of hell, it would be known as preaching “fire and brimstone.” I want you to know that that is not my purpose, in fact, it was only when, I, myself was abruptly reminded of this reality that I came to discover my vocation to the priesthood.

In fact, for those of you who saw my online interview, this won’t be new, but when I went to visit and discern with a group of Franciscan monks, immediately after praying with them, I knew I needed to go to confession. So, almost out of a movie, one of the monks took me down a few cold dark hallways up a few cold dark stairs until we arrived opposite the library. The monk knocked on the door and a gruff voice from the other side instructed me to come in. I didn’t know who to expect, but I saw an older priest, hunched over his desk and he told me to kneel down as I confessed my sins.

The priest then did something no other priest had, he withheld absolution and, instead had me read this book, “Preparation for Death,” (pictured above) and the next day when I read it, I saw my life differently, I saw my sins differently and so rather than thinking to myself I need to change my ways, my first and initial thought was “I’m going straight to Hell.” And, it was a sobering moment, after having gone to the seminary for two years and leaving it and going there to have that realization, it changed me forever.

So, when I went back to the priest for confession, and he told me to confess as if I were to die tomorrow I would go directly to Heaven, when I did, the world changed and my vocation to priesthood became clearer.

Yet, that is what sin does, it separates, it confuses, it causes our souls to be in turmoil, that is what Jesus makes so clear in our Gospel because He wants us to understand the intensity of the battle that is, indeed, daily waged upon our souls and so that we never underestimate the incredible power that sin truly has and can have on us.

This why Jesus speaks the way He does in our Gospel with such graphic detail, not to scare us but to motivate us, to call us to take our spiritual lives seriously, to work towards holiness, to fight for holiness, despite the cost, to, in the words of the early Church Father, St. Cyril of Jerusalem: “Wrestle for thine own soul, especially in such days as these.”

Because as difficult as this message that Jesus is asking to convey is, as a priest, in whose identity I grow in each day, I realize that I have been given a great responsibility, the responsibility of dealing with your immortal souls, that’s my job, and it is a serious matter. That is why all of us, myself included, should recognize that same value of each of our souls, take care of them, and, indeed, give them what they need.

And, the best way to do so is right there, because in His great mercy, and for no other reason than that, God has given us that amazing sacrament, the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A sacrament that, I am convinced, literally, saved me, and a sacrament that reconciles us back to Him, so that we not only confess our sins, but come to live in the grace that is showered upon us every single time we leave that confessional. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that descends upon us, and are once again restored.

For, as Pope Francis has said: “Forgiveness is…a gift. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit who showers us with mercy and grace that pours forth unceasingly from the open heart of Christ crucified and risen.”

Would that we call upon this same Spirit today saying, with Moses, as we heard in our first reading: “Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”