A REFLECTION FOR THE 21ST SUNDAY, YEAR C This Sunday’s liturgy of the word teaches us that the kingdom and salvation of God is universal; it is meant for all, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, ugly or beautiful, rich or poor, Catholic or non-catholic! But we must struggle hard to enter it. In the first reading (Isaiah 66: 18-21), the prophet Isaiah announces this universality of God’s kingdom when he refers to God as saying “I am coming to gather the nations of every language” (Isaiah 66:18). Christ, too, captures the same idea in the gospel (Lk 13:22-30), when He says “people will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down at the feast in the kingdom of God’’(Lk 13:29). But the door to God’s kingdom is so narrow that only ‘small’ people can enter through it. We must therefore mortify ourselves of all that can make us too big or too tall for that door. In the words of Christ, we must “struggle to enter through the narrow door because many will surely try to go in but will not be able’’ (Lk 13:24). Those full of wickedness, evil or iniquities will be too big to enter it and they will be sent away(Lk : 27). “Get away from me, all you wicked people”, the Master would say to them. The second reading tells us this struggle has to do with enduring the tests and trials that our loving Father allows us to go through in this life. Getting to God’s kingdom requires suffering, hard work, discipline, patience, pain, perseverance or endurance (Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13). Mere familiarity or acquaintance with Christ and His teaching does not suffice to secure our entry into His kingdom (Lk 13:26). Neither is descent from Abraham or from a ‘holy family’ or a particular religion or church. Christ says we must struggle hard. But even as we struggle, we must be conscious that the time to struggle is limited; the gate could be shut on us any time!(Lk 13:25). Consequently, no second should be wasted for death is the bank account everyone one has but only God knows the balance in this account. We must, therefore, make hay while the sun shines; we must practise self-restraint and mortification so as to be ‘small’ enough to go in through the narrow door. As scripture captures it nicely: “go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow, and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it” (Mt 7:13-14). Which way do you prefer, which gate? The wide gate with the easy way or the narrow gate with the hard way? And how do we know?
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 05:18:54 +0000
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