Throughout his ministry on earth, Jesus spent a lot of time talking about how hard it was to get into heaven. Today’s Gospel has another of those instances where Jesus states it again.
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.
Notice that a person asked the question, but Jesus answered to the crowd.
John Kavanaugh wrote: “The allusion to the narrow gate is found in Luke’s thirteenth chapter, which contrasts a self-defeating hardness of heart with redemptive repentance. Those whose faith is sterile and lifeless hurt only themselves. Those who are hypocrites fix their fate when they reject the truth. Those who hate Jesus, along with Herod, slam the door on their salvation. And those who refuse to be gathered in by Jesus as chicks are gathered by their mother are left to their own scattered journey.
The narrow gates of the old cities were wide enough for a person to get through. This gate is the size of a person because it is a person. Jesus is the narrow gate, the way by which anyone can get through to the heavenly city.
In all the debates over who and how many will be saved, in our own wonderings about our own eternal lot, it is instructive to remember a truth that is disconcerting yet calming. We all most likely deserve a fate far less glorious than heaven. After all, would not all of us be lost without him? But through him, the narrow gate, all may enter paradise, one by one in salvation’s long procession.”
A few sentences later, Jesus said: “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!’
John Pilch helps us to better understand this section. “Our group-oriented ancestors in the Faith put their primary and greatest faith in the family. … A second way of becoming “related” or becoming “an insider” is by the exchange of food through commensality, or eating together. Friendships are sealed and strangers are integrated into the community by sharing a common meal, even when the ritual aspects of this act of eating together are not explicit.
This understanding of table fellowship lies at the heart of Paul’s argument in Galatians. Peter the Judean used to eat with Gentile converts (non-Judeans) and with this ritual action clearly proclaimed that Judean and non-Judean believers in Jesus were kin.
Jesus’ contemporaries in the Gospel are claiming the same thing. “By eating with us, Jesus, you have made us kin with you. We are your fictive relatives. Why now are you excluding us from fellowship?”
Jesus’ answer has already been given earlier in this same chapter “Unless you repent, you will all perish . . .” It is not enough to have shared a meal with Jesus. A radical change of life is also necessary to establish a kinship relationship with him.
Jesus’ contemporaries remind him: “You taught in our streets.” Jesus’ harsh reply to them insinuates: “Yes, but all you did was listen. You did not take my teaching to heart and reform your lives. You think superficial acquaintance with me and my teachings suffices.”
The beautiful blessing of the mass is that we all come as family to the Table where the Priest blesses and consecrates the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We come forward to receive Christ into our lives and our hearts as one family. But, as John Pilch said, it takes more than eating together as a family to enter the narrow gate. It takes more than just listening and receiving, it takes a change of heart. A change in the way we see other people, in the way we treat other people and in the way we serve other people, especially the poor, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the stranger and the marginalized of society.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan said, “Simply put, we’re in trouble because we as a people have forgotten God.” He’s right. We have become so accustomed to the alure of the world: social media, corporate success (which is not restricted to a large corporation), letting family activities like soccer, gymnastics and baseball consume all our free time and fun at the river or mountains to the point that there is no time for God.
It takes more than going through the motions, than coming to mass when we have time, it takes a change of heart to see others like Christ sees them, to take action to serve those in need of God’s love.
Moses gave us the Law, and the Prophets reminded us to live it. But Jesus came with a new message of what I call ‘Intent Of The Heart’. Jesus taught that if we are envious of what our family members or neighbors have achieved in life, it is sin. He taught that our thoughts reveal the intent of our hearts and can be as sinful as our actions. Jesus taught the hatred we feel toward another person we dislike or who has mistreated us is sin even though we may not take any adverse action toward that person.
The Gospel from Friday read, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
If we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and we love our neighbor as ourselves we are preparing ourselves to enter the Narrow Gate. Jesus said to pick up our cross and follow him without reservation or looking back at the worldly alures that we left behind.
The Responsorial Psalm today gives us the action we need toward the narrow gate, “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.” This is what Jesus commanded us to do, to tell and live the Good News. We accomplish this by seeking God’s will for our lives, by loving and serving others, as Christ loves us that our faith and actions will make us strong enough to enter the Narrow Gate.
