August 21st 2022.  Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   Luke 13,22-30

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

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

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. Jesus speaks of a narrow gate. The narrowness is temporal. The Lord is giving us opportunities of grace right now and the only time to receive this grace is now.

The first reading speaks of something inconceivable to the Jewish mind: the idea that pagans might become priests of the Temple of the Lord, that those far distant from the heritage of Israel should one day be inheritors of the promises. Then, in the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable of someone who has eaten and drunk in the company of the Master, someone who has been very close to the Lord, but still the Lord refuses to recognize them. This risk is very real. Nazareth was the place where the Blessed Virgin manifested the greatest expression faith, but it was also the place where those closest to the Lord refused to believe. We should never presume that we are saved. In the Gospel, someone asks if only a few will be saved. Jesus does not answer one way or the other, but tells us to enter into combat in order to enter the narrow gate. The narrowness of the gate is not spatial but temporal. We must seek the Lord while he can be found. The Lord presents us with a series of occasions to manifest our obedience. This Sunday’s liturgy is the beginning of a week of such opportunities. The events of our lives are always doors the Lord is giving us that open onto grace, occasions to conform to what the Lord is asking of us.

 

2. In the limits and difficulties of our situation are precious moments of correction and opportunities to adhere to Jesus so that he becomes truly our Lord.

For example, as the second reading points out, we must be ready to accept the corrections the Lord makes of us. Life is a great process of education and formation in the hands of our loving Father. Such corrections are doorways to grace. We should ask, “What door is the Lord opening to me in this time so that I might entrust myself more radically to him? What opportunities do I have to live as a child of God, rather than as someone who depends on himself? What occasions of prayer, mercy and service are being opened to me?” Our Christian lives are not to be constructed by ourselves but by the Lord through these providential moments that he places before us. If we do not permit ourselves to be corrected by these moments that the Lord sends us, we will never grow. A nation is delineated by its borders. The limits of our lives are actually spaces of grace within which we must remain if we are to grow. God works through our limits, our weakness, our solitude. Through these limits, God’s grace flows and they become for us the narrow doors to the Kingdom of Heaven. In and through these providential occasions, we give the Lord our hearts so that he can give us His. We entrust ourselves to him with adhesion so that he governs our lives and becomes truly our Lord.