21st. Sunday of Year (C)
(Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews
12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30)
Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a
few people be saved?" He answered, “Strive to enter through the narrow
door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be able (will
not be strong enough)”
Notice first of all the question: ‘Lord,
will only a few people be saved?’ That
phrasing of the question really means, ‘does God save only a few?’, and that, I
say, is a typically human, and indeed very modern, way of phrasing an insincere
question, in that it subtly implies that any blame for human failure to find
salvation is surely to be laid at God’s door, so to speak.
Jesus often refused to answer questions as
desired because frequently they were put not simply to learn the truth but
rather to help in the justification of the questioner: simplicity and love of
truth have never been frequently-encountered human virtues. And so here, Jesus responds not to those
potentially self-justifying words but to the real situation and needs of the
questioner; He responds as the only One Who truly loves God and whole-heartedly
seeks to do His will; He responds as the only-begotten, uniquely beloved, Son
of the Father:
Strive to enter through the narrow door,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be able/strong enough.
For Jesus, the question is not whether God
saves only a few, but whether men and women will come to so love what God so
lovingly offers them as to make the required effort to avail themselves of
it. Many would, indeed, like to
enter the kingdom of God, but they will not strive to enter through the narrow gate; rather, they will present
themselves late in the day at some other point of side-entry they imagine to be
more easily accessible.
Our first reading told us of God choosing
people from nations of every language, while the second described what would be
involved for those thus specially chosen, emphasizing above all their need of
serious and even painful training. Notice particularly here, dear People of
God, that the Scriptures and Catholic teaching proclaim the need, at times, for
a father to discipline his sons. This
is for the good of sons when given by a true father. In our world today, however, there are many
bad ‘fathers’ who themselves are not true sons of the heavenly Father, and in
such cases of modern ‘abuse’ the state now steps in and proscribes all
discipline as being inappropriate, abusive, and psychologically harmful. That ‘state teaching’ however is not
Christian, not Catholic, nor is it even scientific. Right discipline given by a true father for
the good of his son is God-pleasing. A
nanny-state cannot take over from true Christian parents, nor should such
parents willingly cede their own personal authority to a faceless and
faithless state institution:
My son, do not disdain the discipline of
the Lord or lose heart when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves, He
disciplines; He scourges every son He acknowledges.” Endure
your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there
whom his father does not discipline? At
the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it
brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.
However, such is the modern, largely
self-indulgent, Western society to which we belong that I can already imagine
someone saying: ‘Why should we have to suffer like that, why should religion
entail suffering? The answer is given
us by Jesus Himself elsewhere in the Gospel (Matthew 19:25-26):
“It is easier for a camel to pass through
the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When His disciples heard this they were
greatly astonished and said, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said: “For human
beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible."
The reason why no man can save himself is
simple enough: salvation is beyond all human powers, it is something
that God alone can bring about, because it gives human beings a share in divine
life, in the eternal blessedness and glory of God Himself, by making them adopted members of His family and partakers
of His holiness. This we have
learned from our Christian faith and formation which teaches us what the
original disciples, with their Jewish background, could not begin to understand
until they had seen Jesus rise from the dead and subsequently ascend in bodily
glory to heaven. A faith that promises
such heavenly glory to weak and indeed sinful human beings, if it is to be a
heavenly reality and not just some ‘pie in the sky promise’, necessarily
entails a training that will, inevitably, have to involve suffering in some way
or other since it has to bring about in us a transformation, raising us up
above our earthly limitations, and cleansing and purifying us of our inherent
and long-indulged selfishness and sinfulness.
And we can glimpse something of the necessity of such training in the
response given by the master in our Gospel reading to those arriving outside
the house after the doors have been closed:
After the master of the house has arisen
and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord,
open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you
are from.’
Only those, that is, are recognizable for
salvation whose origin is known; and we are personally known in that way to the
Father only if He can see Jesus, His beloved Son, in us: that is, if we, as
living members of the Body of Christ, have been formed into the likeness of
our Head; if we, as dutiful children of Mother Church, have been guided,
by the Spirit with which she has been endowed, to follow her teaching and so to
live and walk as true disciples along the way of Jesus, the one and only Lord
of Salvation. Loners are not
admitted; haven’t you just heard Jesus say, ‘for human beings salvation is
impossible’. Only those showing
themselves to be sincere disciples of Jesus, walking in His ways of
goodness and truth, are beloved of the Father and only such disciples empowered
by the sacraments of Mother Church will ultimately prove ‘strong enough to
enter through the narrow door’.
Of course, all who are left outside,
having no appreciation of the holiness and majesty of God, cried out in
self-justification:
We ate and drank in Your
company, and You taught in our streets.
They confidently proclaimed familiarity
with the Master, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our
streets’, but such protestations merely brought into prominence their basic
contempt for Him, for they had never really payed attention to His words heard
in their streets; they had never tried to appreciate His teaching in their
hearts; nor had their eating and drinking in His presence ever been honest and
sincere expressions of their love and longing for personal communion with
Him. Jesus’ answer is given in words of
clear and deserved condemnation:
I do not know where you are from. Depart from Me, all you evil doers.
Most people today have little respect for
religion and almost no appreciation of heavenly matters: instead of the
transcendent God they can imagine nothing more than a mythical, white-haired,
old man sitting on a gilded throne high above; and natural charm of manner, emotional
exhibitionism, and the dynamics of spiritual careerism, are the only signs they
consider to be indicative of a holiness engendered by the presence of God’s
Spirit of truth and life. Consequently,
it is not surprising that this parable of Jesus and the attitude of the Master
of the house can cause vehement complaints of self-righteous indignation from
many: ‘Why should religion, discipleship, entail suffering?’
Because self-indulgence and
self-satisfaction are prevalent among men and women of all ages the same
teaching was given by Jesus on many other occasions and in many other ways
throughout His ministry so that there could be no possibility of it being
overlooked or ignored by anyone in the slightest degree serious about serving
God:
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the
gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go
in by it. Because narrow is the gate and
difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Whoever desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. (Matt. 7:13-14) (Mark 8:34-36)
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given
to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Luke 11:9)
Assuredly, unless you are converted and
become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)
People of God, in modern society, as we
know it, positive words and actions frighten people: and so leaders of all
sorts prefer to be able to avoid responsibility for difficult decisions by
saying that events left them with no other option, or that they did all that
was humanly possible in straightened circumstances. Even in religious matters, leaders can feel
themselves so vulnerable, so open to bitter criticism, that it is not often
today that anything positive is said unless, so to speak, the direction and
power of the wind and the temperature of the water have been thoroughly tested
and suitably allowed for in their words and presentation of whatever they might
dare to say or choose to propose.
Now Jesus had no such taste for
self-preservation, no such fear of what human beings might think, say, or do,
in His regard: He served only His Father’s glory and our salvation. Therefore we privileged Catholics should take
Him most seriously when He warns us:
There will be wailing and grinding of
teeth, when you see yourselves cast out of the Kingdom of God, and (others)
come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and recline at
table in the kingdom of God.
We should take notice even more carefully
if, within that privileged Catholic society, we are in any way influential or
leaders -- such as priests, teachers, and parents -- because:
Some are last who will be first, and some
are first who will be last.
However, although we seriously, and
perhaps at times perhaps anxiously, allow Our Lord’s words to admonish us, we
must never forget our primary duty and privilege of filial confidence
together with gratitude: we must always take to heart from, and place our trust
in, words of comfort such as the following heard in our second reading and
echoed throughout the whole of Our Blessed Lord’s life and teaching:
The Lord loves those whom He disciplines;
He acknowledges every son He scourges.
To be loved by the Lord, to be accepted as
His children, what a privilege!! Surely,
any passing, earthly, trials and suffering allowed by the Lord Who thus loves
us in His beloved Only-Begotten Son, are to be embraced with humble confidence
and firm trust by all who would be true disciples of Him Who embraced the
Passion and Cross on Calvary with such enduring patience and consuming love for
us.
Son though He was, He (for us) learned obedience from what He
suffered; and when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey Him.
(Hebrews 5:8-9)
Having thus been made perfect in His own
manhood on His rising in glory to join His Father in Heaven, He now awaits our
purification and glorification as members of His Body; a perfection to be
brought to fulfilment in us by the Spirit He has given us and the teaching He
has left us in Mother Church.
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