AUGUST 21^st 2016. TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Luke 13:22-30

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 (Translation of a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio)

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL: Luke 13:22-30

Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 
Someone asked him,
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” 
He answered them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough. 
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.
And you will say,
‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’
Then he will say to you,
‘I do not know where you are from. 
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. 
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last.”

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus tells us that the door leading to salvation is “narrow”. What could this mean? Does he mean that only certain types of people will get through? The door to salvation is narrow in the temporal sense. The Lord is standing in front of us inviting us to enter into a relationship with him, and time is passing quickly. We tend to think that we have plenty of time to respond to the Lord, so we remain immobile, frozen in our own securities, reluctant to place our hand in his and follow him radically. We are hurtling rapidly towards our deaths and the door that is open to us will soon be closed because our earthly lives will come to an end. We may well be aware that we are not responding to Jesus in a full and authentic way, but we take salvation for granted and think that we still have time. We remain absorbed in ourselves, pursuing our own infantile obsessions. But life can end in an instant and the narrow door will then be closed. Let us not take it for granted that our marriages will survive or that our Christian lives will come to fruition. If we do not take the opportunity today to enter through the door that the Lord has opened for us then we may well lose everything. There is no need to be concerned that we may not recognize the door that the Lord is opening for us. Usually there is nothing dramatic or difficult about it. The good Lord is already today speaking to our hearts and our consciences. It will not be difficult for us to discern what we need to do if we are to respond fully to him.

The prophet Isaiah tells us that the door to salvation will be opened for peoples of all nations

The first reading announces a great gathering of people who speak many languages. We are told that the Lord will select priests and Levites from among them; in other words they will be a sacred people. This goes against a mentality that was prevalent in Old Testament times, and with which Jesus clashed in many respects, even though he is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. There is still a religious tendency that seeks to make a sharp division between those who are the elect and those who are cast away, the righteous and the unrighteous, the good and the bad, the saved and the lost. In the Old Testament, in addition, there was a contempt for those who were not ethnically Jewish. The reading from Isaiah, which comes from the third and final part of the book, is extraordinary. It speaks of the sacred office of priesthood being extended universally to all peoples. This point here is that it is no longer bloodline that decides one’s destiny. In the Prologue of John we hear that those who become children of God are born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor the will of the flesh, but of God. One’s family line is no longer the parameter of who will be saved.

Jesus is not interested in answering the question of how many will be saved

This week’s Gospel presents us with a question that is typical of the religious mentality. “Who will be saved? Will there only be a few?” Jesus does not respond directly to the question but makes the discussion evolve to a new level. He says: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” And as we are trying to understand what the Lord might mean here, he goes on to say: “And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” The issue for Jesus is not the quantity of those who will be saved, but neither is it any particular quality. Those who are saved, indeed, will “see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out”. In other words, those who seemed to have the right quality, the very descendants of Abraham, are in danger of being left outside.

The door to heaven is narrow because time is flying by more quickly than we imagine. Jesus is the door, and has been standing in front of us, but we are putting him off, delaying entering into relationship with him, while our lives hurtle rapidly towards their end.

What point does Jesus wish to make? Is the narrow door narrow in the spatial sense? Does it prevent obese people from entering, or those who are too tall? No, the door is narrow in the temporal sense. Jesus Christ is passing by and people are asking, abstractly, who will be saved and who will not be saved, as if it depended on some a priori personal characteristic. No, we enter heaven by availing of the opportunity presented to us by the passing of Jesus. The Kingdom of Heaven is very close to us. We can enter the banquet of the Kingdom through the door that the Lord opens for us. The door is narrow for those who are questioning Jesus because the Lord is passing them by at just this moment, and now is the time! Jesus is saying: “I am the open door! Follow me! Leave the life you are leading! Begin living according to the Good News that I have brought!” People at that time could well have replied: “But we have done great things, stood in your presence, ate with you!” However, if they have not entered into relationship with the Lord, then they have not actually taken their opportunity to enter the narrow door.

God is opening doors to us where we can leave our infantile securities behind and pass into an authentic relationship with the Lord. But we delay and remain absorbed in ourselves, thinking that we are just a step away from real salvation and we can stay as we are for another while.

All of us are born to die in the sense that we are destined to be with the Father. One thing that most people in the world agree upon is that we are born to love, but what is true love if not to lose one’s life? Living is to struggle against that primordial anguish in which I root myself in one spot and cling onto my own certitudes. But God opens doors for us, through the experience of charity, acts of faith, glimmerings of hope, where I can leave my infantile certainties behind, my attachment to the things that give me security, and pass into a relationship with God and my neighbour. Jesus tells us that people will come from east and west to enter the banquet of the Kingdom, whilst we are rooted in the one spot. We will not go through the door whilst others will come from afar to enter. It is a curious thing that when something is more distant we tend to desire it more. The more difficult it is to achieve, the more importance we give it. If something is at arm’s reach, we look upon it as something banal. We think we are just one step from salvation and we don’t bother to take that one step! When we feel very far from salvation we begin to run towards it. The convert in his zeal often has the enthusiasm and energy that is lacking in those who were raised in the shadow of the church steeple and who tend to take everything for granted.

Do we fret that we will not recognize the door of salvation when it is open to us? God is good and is already speaking to our hearts and our consciences. We already know deep down what we need to do to go through the door that the Lord has opened for us today

Jesus is telling us in this Sunday’s Gospel that it is not to be taken for granted that we are saved, that we should not think naively that we are going to move out of our own mediocrity. It is not a sure thing that our marriages will hold together, that our religious vows will be lived authentically, that our pastoral initiatives will come to fruition, that the Christian life will finish well. No-one can be sure of the outcome of what they are doing. Each one of us is challenged to enter or refuse to enter through the narrow gate of the holy will of God, to transcend ourselves or become enclosed within ourselves, remain frozen in our own certitudes or allow ourselves to be led out, cling on to our own securities or go out into a new world. The door is narrow and the opportunities are less than we think. In one instant everything can come to an end. That which is taken for granted can easily be lost. Let us welcome the authentic message of this Gospel passage and exploit the opportunities for following the Lord that our consciences reveal to us. There is no need to look for dramatic ways of responding to the Lord, or to be concerned that the Lord will not present us with the opportunities to follow him. God is good and is already speaking to our heart. He tells us, “This is the moment to start moving, to cast down the demon of indolence”. Life – the Christian life of responding to the Lord - involves movement, not standing still.