1 Kings 19:9, 11-16 / Matthew 5:27-32
Whenever there is danger or a threat or some kind of hostility, there are usually two options at hand - either we fight or we take flight.
In other words, either we stand our ground and face up to what is going to come at us, or we turn around and run and maybe fight another day.
As for the prophet Elijah in the 1st reading, when he reached Horeb, the mountain of God, he went into the cave and spent the night in it.
But actually it was more like hiding in the cave because he was running away from his enemies who were after him for his life.
Hiding in a cave in the mountain of God was certainly the safest place, but God wouldn't want us to keep running and hiding forever.
Because in the end, God sent him back to what he was running from and God even had a mission for him to continue his prophetic role of anointing kings.
So it was from taking flight to taking up the fight again and facing the danger of his enemies.
In the gospel, as Jesus teaches about cutting off whatever that causes us to sin, it could also mean that we can't run away from our temptations.
We have to face and fight our temptations and it might mean losing an eye or a hand (in the figurative sense)
But the Lord will give us the strength to fight and make the devil fly away. Still let us not be too proud or confident.
Even if we win the fight, let us remember to go back into that cave of God's mountain. We need to hide and rest in God before we can go on fighting again.