TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR "C"

Cycle “C”: Luke 13, 22 – 30 “The Narrow Gate”

When someone asked the Teacher, “Lord, are there few saved ?”, he (Jesus) was pulling himself through the towns and villages of Palestine. He was busy teaching all the time. His destination was Jerusalem. There he would keep his long-planned rendezvous with death. The exhausted Christ, desperately needing a shower and a cold drink, ignored the query about whether few or many people are saved. Oftentimes the question put to him did not touch on his syllabus. But he took advantage of the well-intentioned question to say in effect: “The door of the kingdom is unlocked. Keep in mind it is not wide, but it swings freely on well-oiled hinges. Those willing to exert themselves will walk right in. No man or woman at any time needs stand outside, their faces pressed against the glass door, wistfully looking in.”

My dear friends, all of us need a re-introduction to the real Jesus Christ. Perhaps some of us live in a fantasy world in relation to him. Today’s gospel is as good a teaching tool as any. Jesus is no soft touch, like the gods of Greek mythology. Rather, he is a no-nonsense man who tells it like it is. In blunt language the Nazarene tells us that no one has a master key to heaven’s gate. Rather, it is a pay-off for a lifetime of hard labour. What our parents or grandparents may have done for the Christ matters little. Everyone must pay his or her own dues. There’s no bonus without the onus. As the American columnist put the case, “Even if you’re on the right track, you will get run over if all you do is just sit there.”

Sometimes our Church is called the Church of the Narrow Door. Do your prefer a narrow door or a wide gate ? In general we prefer the idea of width, of space to move and breathe. If you’re stuck in a football crowd leaving a stadium, you hope there’s a wide exit. Narrowness is not usually thought of as something to be commended or praised. When we speak of someone as narrow-minded, it’s not meant to be a compliment. It’s a pity more people can’t travel the straight and narrow path without becoming straight-laced and narrow-minded. Going through the narrow doorway need not mean that we become narrow-minded and censorious. The mind, like a parachute, works best when it is open. Yet Jesus tells his disciples to strive entering by the narrow gate. He means that sometimes we have to make hard choices; we have to exclude other possibilities of action that are not so honourable, and we are narrowed down to one difficult option. Some of the options we have to make are based on higher values that are not so popular.

Let’s get past the idea of narrowness and try to realise that Jesus is not merely showing us the way; he IS the Way. We cannot reach the Father except through him. To be a disciple is to be on the road to Jerusalem with him in suffering. All the same, it is a serious mistake to think that it is God who sends us suffering or imposes penances on us. On the contrary, God wants a healthy and happy humanity, living in harmony with him, with fellow humans and with nature. So it is more correct to understand that God sends his Son in order to be with us, sharing the trials of our pilgrimage to heaven. He feels the pains of our illnesses, our broken relationships, the pain caused by certain people’s animosity towards us. The crucial question is how do we act in these circumstances ? Do we want to be and act like Jesus Christ or do it our way ? Jesus is clear that his Gospel is inclusive, not exclusive. It is God’s will that all should be saved. He offers salvation to everyone, from all corners of the earth. There is no distinction, no preferential treatment. All that he asks of us is that we believe in him and follow his way.

Let God take over your lives completely, and he will do with you what he did with his Son  -  awarded him the Resurrection. My dear friends, the joy we feel over a hard-earned experience is much greater and deeper than the superficial happiness we would have had if the result were brought to us “on a platter.”

PRAYER: By Erasmus (1466 – 1536;  + 70 years)

O Lord Jesus Christ, the Truth, the Way, and the Life, grant that we may never stray from you who are the Way, nor distrust you who are the Truth, nor rest in anything other than you, you who are the Life. Teach us by your Holy Spirit what to believe, what to do, and wherein to take our rest. For your own name’s sake we ask it, O Jesus Christ our Lord.