Is 66: 18-21, Heb 12: 5-7, 11-13; Lk 13: 22-30 Someone once said to
Padarewski, the great pianist, "Sir, you are a genius." He replied, "Madam, before
I was a genius I was a drudge." He continued: “If I missed practice one day, I noticed
it; if I missed practice two days, the critics noticed it; if I missed three days,
my family noticed it; if I missed four days, my audience noticed it. It is reported
that after one of Fritz Kreisler's concerts a young woman said to him, "I would give
my life to be able to play like that." He replied, "That's what I gave.” The door
is narrow. Why should we think we can "drift" into the Kingdom of God? The Christian
life is a constant striving to do the will of God as Jesus revealed it. We need to
strive because there are forces of evil within us and around us, trying to pull us
down.
Many years ago, an editorial in the magazine, War Cry put it like this:
"A loose wire gives out no musical note; but fasten the ends, and the piano, the harp
or the violin is born. Free steam drives no machine. But hamper and confine it with
piston and turbine and you have the great world of machinery made possible. The unhampered
river drives no dynamos, but dam it up and we get power sufficient to light a great
city. So our lives must be disciplined if we are to be of any real service in this
world." If you are going to walk with Jesus, there are some things you will need to
leave behind. As he continued his fateful journey to Jerusalem, Jesus answered
the question, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" by answering four presumed
questions: Who will be saved? How? Why? When? Jesus clearly explained that any one
who followed him through the narrow gate of sacrificial serving and sharing love would
be saved. Jesus also admonished his followers to concentrate on their own salvation
instead of worrying about other peoples' salvation In the first reading, Isaiah's
prophecy speaks to the returning Babylonian exiles some 400 years later, telling them
that salvation was not a Jewish monopoly, and that was why Yahweh would also welcome
the pagans into Judaism. The prophet’s great book ends as it began, with a vision
of all the peoples of the world streaming toward Jerusalem, acknowledging and praising
the God of Israel. In the second reading, exploring with his readers the
consequences of Christian commitment, St. Paul explained “the narrow gate” of Jesus
as pain and suffering, resulting from God’s loving disciplining of His children. The
responsorial psalm, "Go out to all the world and tell the Good News,” reflects
the mission of God’s chosen people to be instruments of salvation to the whole world.
The first reading: Is. 66: 18-21: Isaiah answered prophetically a similar question
about salvation, which would be put forward some 200 years later by the Jews who returned
to Jerusalem in 540 BC after forty-seven years in exile. Some of them brought back
to Jerusalem their pagan wives and in-laws who had been converted to the Jewish faith.
The question was whether Yahweh would accept these former pagans along with His chosen
people. The third part of Isaiah's prophecy (chapters 56-66), answers this question.
In the prophet's message, Yahweh declared that He was the Lord of all peoples rather
than of the Jews alone. In fact, some of these converts were to be missionaries to
other pagans. Even the hereditary posts of priest and Levite could be held by these
outsiders. (The Jewish priests were born into the priesthood. No Jewish man born
outside of a priestly family could ever dream of standing at the altar and offering
sacrifice to Yahweh. But Isaiah foresaw that even the non-Jews would be invited to
join that highly restricted ministry!) Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13: The author of
the Letter to the Hebrews, considering the “narrow gate theology,” gives it a different
twist (Heb 12:5-7, 11-13). For Paul, the road less often taken and the gate less
often chosen are the paths of God's discipline. The pain and suffering Christians
experience are parts of God’s discipline, given in love. The experience is similar
to that of a child, disciplined by loving parents who desire only to help him grow,
mature, and become responsible. God’s discipline can be appreciated only by those
who regard their relationship with God as that of a child to a parent (Proverbs 3:
11-12). Unfortunately, we often take God’s discipline differently. Some of us meet
God’s discipline with a resigned acceptance that sees no other possible course. Others
gulp it down like a bitter pill so as to be done with it as soon as possible. Some
respond with self-pity which, in the end, leads to their collapse. Still others become
resentful and turn away from God. However, there are some, who can lift their spirits
above present trials and look beyond to the peace and justice (v. 11) which are the
fruits of God’s discipline. “Are you saved”? When the questioner asked Jesus “How
many will be saved?” he was assuming that the salvation of God's Chosen People was
virtually guaranteed, provided they kept the Law. In other words, the kingdom of God
was reserved for the Jews alone, and Gentiles would be shut out. The Jewish catechism,
Mishnah, taught: “All Israelites have a share in the world to come.” But the author
of the Apocalypse of Ezra declared, “this age the Most High has made for the many,
but the age to come for a few” (4 Ezra 8:1). Hence, Jesus' answer must have come as
a shock. Jesus affirms that God wants all persons to enjoy eternal life with Him.
But he stresses the need for constant fidelity and vigilance throughout our lives.
Thus, Jesus reminds us that, even though God wants all of us to be saved, we all need
to work at it. Entry into God’s kingdom is not automatically granted, based purely
on religious faith or nationality, so we cannot presume on God’s mercy and do nothing
by way of response to God’s invitation. What Jesus is saying is that salvation is
not guaranteed for anyone. "Outside the Church there is no salvation" was a rallying
cry for centuries. But Jesus declares that nobody can claim that he is “saved,” possessing
a "visa" to heaven. How many will be saved in the end is a decision that rests with
God, and depends on whether His Justice or His Mercy finally prevails. Jesus came
to bring God's love and freedom to the whole world. The message of his Gospel is that
there is not a single person, not a single people, nation, race, or class, which will
be excluded from experiencing the love and liberation that God offers. Hence, the
role of the Christian community, from the beginning until now has been, first and
foremost, to proclaim to the whole world the Good News of God's love for the world,
and then to show this Good New to be real, reflected in the loving, sharing and serving
lives of individual Christians. So to be "saved" means to live and to die in a close,
loving relationship with God and with others. Jesus issued a series of sayings
and parables that emphasized the difficulty involved in entering God’s kingdom, and
he stressed the need for constant fidelity and vigilance throughout our lives. Jesus
also insisted that salvation was an urgent matter -- the "narrow gate" was open now
but would not remain so indefinitely (“the master of the house will lock the door”).
Then he added two conditions: a) Eternal salvation was the result of a struggle:
"keep on striving to enter.” (The Greek word agonizomai means strenuous effort
in athletic competition. See I Cor 9:25; 1 Tim 6:12; 2 Tim 4:7). It is like the
effort one would make in swimming against the current in a river. A man must ever
be going forward or else he will go backward. b) We must enter through the "narrow
gate" of sacrificial and selfless service. (Confer Mt. 7:13-14; Jer. 21:8; Deut. 30:
15-20; Joshua 24:15). The narrow gate: Most cities of the ancient world were
surrounded by walls that had large gates in them. Jerusalem had about twelve gates
that were large enough for two-way traffic. People moved through these gates to
do their business, to shop, and to visit their friends. These gates, however, were
closed at night, in case the city came under attack by an invader. There were also
smaller gates through which individual citizens could be allowed into the city by
the guards without exposing the city to danger. These smaller, or narrower gates were
what Jesus was talking about. These smaller gates were like turnstiles – only one
person at a time could enter through them. Jesus repeats Isaiah's image of a final
banquet. He does not want his followers to presume they can just slip through to enter
his Father’s house. Jesus is not looking for casual acquaintance from us but for real
dedication. The crowd will press for entry, but the door will be too narrow to admit
all. The less alert will be forced to stay outside and appeal in vain for entry. They
will say that they ought to be allowed to enter because they were acquainted with
Jesus during his earthly life The irony of Jesus' image is that the narrow gates were
the proper way to enter the kingdom precisely because they were just wide enough to
receive a single person – anyone who was willing to do sacrificial service for the
glory of God. In other words, entering through the narrow gate denoted a steady obedience
to the Lord Jesus -- overcoming all opposition and rejecting every temptation. It
was the narrow way of unconditional and unremitting love. Mere faith in Jesus and
membership in His Church by Baptism could not guarantee salvation. Some of the Fathers
of the Church interpreted the narrow door as that small place in the heart where one
says "yes" or "no" to what one knows to be true. It is the one place through which
no external force can enter to shape or coerce one's choices. This place is what Teresa
of Avila called the "center of the soul" wherein God dwells. That means that Jesus
is the narrow gate, the way by which any person must enter the heavenly city. “Being
saved’ is not a Protestant idea. Protestants, in fact, took the idea from Catholics.
But in Catholic theology, "being saved" is the end result - seeing God face to face
in heaven, and not a ready-made “passport and visa” as some of our Protestant brothers
claim. Jesus explains that salvation begins with faith. But it is also the result
of how that faith is lived, as is seen in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
the prophets. We, too, believe that we cannot “earn” our way into heaven by good
works (this is the Pelagian heresy, condemned by the Council of Carthage in A.D. 418),
but we also believe that we must allow God to work in our lives through His grace,
a grace that is reflected in our actions.
Hence, our answer to the question:
“Have you been saved?” should be: “I have been saved from the penalty of sin by Christ’s
death and resurrection. I am being saved from the power of sin by the indwelling
Spirit of God. I have the hope that I shall one day be saved from the very presence
of sin when I go to be with God.” It is through the grace of Christ that we are able
to live out His life in us -- a grace that is fortified every time we participate
in the Holy Eucharist, are reconciled with God and meditate on His Word. Bishop Sheen
says that we will have three surprises in heaven: 1) There will be many there whom
we never expected; b) there will be many absent whom we expected to see; and c)
we will be surprised to find that we ourselves have gotten in. The real question
is: who will enter God's kingdom? There is only one answer: those who choose the
narrow gate, and they will come from east and west, and will eat together, live together
and enjoy God's beatific vision for all eternity.
Life messages: 1) We need
to make wise decisions and choose the narrow gate. God allows us to decide every
day what road we will walk down and what gate we will choose. He encourages us, however,
to choose His way: “Choose life” (Moses – Deut 30:19-20); “Choose this day whom to
serve” (Joshua – 24:15); ”If God is Lord, follow Him” (Elijah – 1 Kings 18:21); “There
are two paths: one of life and one of death, and the difference between the two is
great.”(Didache); "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). This means a consistent denial
of self and the steady relinquishing of sinful pleasures, pursuits, and interests.
St. Paul lists these sins in Galatians 5:19-21: “The works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, and occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.” Paul then enumerates "good works" that are
representative of the "narrow road" and “narrow gate." These are “the fruits of the
Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). In other words, the "narrow road" or "narrow gate"
concerns our everyday living—our relationships with God and with one another. To enter
the narrow gate involves being with the blessed ones (poor, peacemakers, persecuted,
etc), being salt and light consistently, following Jesus’ radical way about murder/anger,
adultery/lust, divorce, truth-telling, mercy over revenge, loving enemies. And it
involves doing good deeds for the right reasons; it involves pursuing the kingdom
and God’s justice instead of fame and fortune; and it involves not condemning the
others. It involves repentance, obedience, humility, righteousness, truth and discipleship.
Hence, we are to strive to enter through the “narrow gate” by prayer and supplication,
diligently seeking deliverance from those things which would bar our entrance, and
acquiring those things which would facilitate our entry 2) We need to check our
track on a daily basis. The parable of the locked door warns us that the time is
short. Each day sees endings and opportunities missed. “Opportunity will not knock
twice at your door.” Remember the old "Examination of Conscience" we were asked to
make at the end of each day, in which we ask God’s pardon for the faults and sins
of the day? "How conscious was I this day of God's numerous gifts? How well did
I respond to the opportunities to bear witness and serve in Jesus' name: to forgive,
feed, clothe, and love those who entered my life? How much did I strive today to
enter through the narrow gate of sacrificial love in action?'" We might conclude
this self-examination with a short prayer: “I need you Jesus Christ. Grant me forgiveness
for my sins. Make me a new person. I need your Holy Spirit to direct me, to strengthen
me, so that I can walk in the narrow way and choose the narrow gate. I need you to
change me from a self-centered, self-sufficient person into your wise servant.”
Back
in 1994, 128 runners lined up to compete in the NCAA cross-country championship in
Riverside, California. Unfortunately, one of the turns on the 10,000-meter course
was not well-marked. Only five of the 128 runners stayed on the correct path. Mike
Delcavo was the first runner to notice the problem. He began waving at the other runners
to follow him, but most refused. Can you blame them? One-hundred-and-twenty-three
runners took the wrong path, only five took the right one. What did the 123 think
of Delcavo? He commented later, "They thought it was funny that I went the right way."
(Leadership, Summer 1994, p. 49.) We all like to think that we're on the right path;
what a rude awakening it would be to discover we aren't, if we take the broad way
leading to eternal damnation. (Source: Homilies of Fr. Anthony Kadavil)