For the Curious and Complacent
21st. Sunday Year “C”
Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people
be saved?” It’s a fair question, and not unimportant to our
faith. It touches on divine justice and mercy, on eternity and evangelization,
on grace and merit. Unfortunately, our Lord doesn’t seem to give a direct
answer. Neither a Yes nor No, nor any statistics
on Heaven and Hell. Instead, He gives an exhortation and tells a parable.
Of course, He is not avoiding the question. Our Lord’s
response indicates that, contrary to popular opinion, salvation will be – at
the very least – difficult. Thus the exhortation to strive
to enter through the narrow gate. But more to the point, He addresses
two problems that typically surface in discussions about Heaven’s population:
curiosity and complacency. The directness of His reply addresses curiosity. Its
content addresses complacency.
Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people
be saved?” Notice that in response our Lord addresses – in
fact, commands – the questioner directly: Strive to
enter through the narrow gate. This blunt response (not actually an
answer) indicates that the man’s concerns needed to be redirected. It reveals a
certain smugness about the man’s question. He is curious about Heaven’s
statistics, but less concerned about his own salvation. Of course, he should
not ask about others as much as about himself. His question should not be a
hypothetical one about others, but a personal one about himself: What
must I do to be saved?
It is this unasked question that our Lord answers: Strive
to enter through the narrow gate. In effect, You, stop occupying
yourself with questions about others. . . . Consider your own situation and
what you need to change to attain Heaven. Jesus’ response resembles
His exchange with Peter at the Sea of Tiberius. (Jn. 21:20-23) Peter sees John
and asks, Lord, what about him? Our Lord responds, What
if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow
me.
What concern is it of yours? You follow me. It is
good to be concerned about the salvation of others and likewise about the
theology of salvation. But when that concern distracts us from our own
salvation and need for conversion – as it seems to have done to the questioner
in this passage – then it becomes a distraction, a vain curiosity.
But we like that distraction. To consider our own salvation is
a difficult, daunting thing. It’s so much easier to speculate about others. So
rather than looking to our own salvation, we consider salvation in the abstract
or wonder about the fate of our neighbours. To break us of this vain curiosity,
our Lord addresses us directly: Strive to enter through the narrow gate.
Second, the content of our Lord’s response seeks to shock the
questioner – and us – out of complacency. Strive to enter through the
narrow gate. The Greek for strive is “agonizesthe,”
from which we have agony. A literal translation would be agonize to
enter the narrow gate. Heaven is not easily entered. God’s grace does not
bear fruit in our lives unless we strive – agonize– to cooperate
with it. It requires that we daily put to death the rebellious man within us
and clear out room for grace to work. We cannot sit back, relax, do nothing –
and then expect to enter Heaven. There’s no such thing as coasting upwards.
In contrast, our Lord’s parable tells the fate of those who do
not strive. They know the Master of the house, but only in passing and superficially.
He was among them, drinking in their company and teaching in their streets. But
He did not know them because they never bothered to acquaint themselves with
Him. They were near Him and around Him, perhaps in the crowds that followed
Him. But they never took the time to know Him directly and personally.
Ironically, this complacency threatens those who already believe.
That is why our Lord addresses His entire lesson not to unbelievers but to
those who follow Him, to those who feel comfortable enough to cry out, Lord,
open the door for us. It is a caution to those who feel so comfortable in
the Church that they may for that very reason become lazy and too casual about
divine things. Indeed, we can know about our Lord – the
stories, teachings, parables, miracles, etc. – without ever actually knowing
Him.
Complacency is the point at which the routine becomes rote.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, what began as the shaping of our lives around
the faith becomes the shaping of the faith around our lives. We continue with
our prayers, devotional practices, Mass, etc. But the situation has changed.
The faith remains a part of our lives; it just ceases to determine our
lives.
Strive. That one word captures what
must be a constant in the Catholic life: a striving to subject every part of
our lives to His gentle yoke; an agonizing to be freed from whatever keeps us
from Him in the slightest; a toiling to grow in His likeness.
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