21st
Ordinary Sunday (Year C)
First
Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21 Second
Reading: Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
Gospel Reading: Luke
13:22-30
“GO OUT TO ALL THE WORLD AND TELL THE GOOD NEWS.”
Several
cotton farmers were whiling away a winter afternoon around the
potbellied stove. They soon became entangled in a heated discussion
on the merits of their respective religions. The eldest of the
farmers had been sitting quietly, just listening, when the group
turned to him and demanded, "Who's right, old Jim? Which one
of these religions is the right one?"
"Well,"
said Jim thoughtfully, "you know there are three ways to get
from here to the cotton gin. You can go right over the big hill.
That's shorter but it's a powerful climb. You can go around the east
side of the hill. That's not too far, but the road is rougher and
difficult. Or you can go around the west side of the hill, which is
the longest way, but the easiest."
"But
you know," he said, looking them squarely in the eye, "when
you get there, the gin man won't ask you how you came or what
religion you believe. He just asks, 'Man,
how good is your cotton?'"
Today
is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. The First Reading of
today presents us with the teaching that the salvation of God
is extended to all the nations of the earth and it is our task
to 'proclaim his glory among nations,'
inviting all to the Kingdom of God. In the Second Reading from Letter
to the Hebrews we are reminded that we must persevere in trials, even
as God uses them to discipline us because it is the loving
discipline of a father with his sons. Finally, we are warned in the
Gospel of Luke against presumption and the idea of easy salvation.
Salvation is for all, but it involves the hard work of collaborating with the
grace of God day in and day out, until the last day of our lives. It
cannot be taken for granted. It is a task and a mission.
THE LORD OF ALL NATIONS:
God
chose the Jewish people for special blessings. But this choice was
not an end in itself. God selected them to bring salvation to the
whole world. This is the theme of the First Reading of today from the
Book of the Prophet Isaiah. The prophet stirs up God's people with a
vision of how they will participate in revealing God's glory to the
world. He mentions several foreign lands around the Mediterranean.
Scattered throughout the world, they will spread the knowledge of the
one true God. They will attract all people to Jerusalem and its
Temple, the symbol of God’s very presence. What a colorful
procession! Pilgrims of every race and nation are traveling side by
side on horses, mules, and camels. They have been gathered to worship
the one true God.
Isaiah prophesied that the Lord was coming to gather
all nations and tongues, and how the Lord will even make priests out
of them. Today, he invites all of us, you and me, to recognize our
absolute dependency upon an awesome God, who is the Lord of all
nations, the creator of an incredible universe, the source of
everything that is or can be.
UNIVERSAL
SALVATION:
Today’s
Gospel Reading from St. Luke continues to exploit the rich
significance of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and his rendezvous with
God’s divine will of universal salvation.
a) “Lord,
will only a few people be saved?”
As
Jesus journeyed towards Jerusalem with his disciples, someone asked
him, “Lord, will only a few people
be saved?” It’s a rather curious
question. The question reflected the belief of many Jews in Jesus'
time that they and they alone were God's 'Chosen
People.' For them that meant, on
the one hand, that 'gentiles'
and 'unbelievers,'
people who did not observe the Law of Moses, were outcasts to be
rejected by God forever. The salvation of God's People, however, was
virtually guaranteed, provided they kept the Law.
But
Jesus didn't choose to answer the question directly. Instead he took
this simple question – and used it to teach his followers about
salvation. He went further than that and stressed the essential
facts. How many will be saved isn’t the important thing. The
important thing, the one you and I should really be concerned about
is, 'How
can we be saved?'
And this is the question Jesus answers.
b) “Strive
to enter through the narrow gate.”
Firstly,
Jesus says that one has to struggle to enter through that symbolic
'narrow
gate'
into the kingdom of God - “Strive
to enter through the narrow gate.”
The
implication of the narrow gate is that the passage is not built to
accommodate throngs indiscriminately, as a wider entrance would. The
narrowness of the door is stressed to express the reality that it is
not made for crowds. Salvation is a personal and individual endeavor.
Also, salvation is not easy.
It comes with a price. It comes with struggle and pain.
Moreover,
the narrow gate is open to all, but only those who seek it are
admitted. The kingdom of God is a choice to be made. Indeed, the gift
of salvation is not an indiscriminate prerogative. Salvation is for
all and God wills to save all, yes, but the divine saving love
demands a personal response.
c) “I
do not know where you are from.”
Secondly,
Jesus then uses the parable of the locked door to explain to his
followers that there is more to being a follower of Jesus than they
might think. The parable of the locked door refers to those who tarry
in accepting Jesus. Jesus says very clearly that it is not enough to
follow Jesus, eat meals with him and listen to him. We cannot claim
discipleship by mere affiliation. There is something more that has to
be done. Having once accepted Jesus' invitation, each one has to live
by his teachings every moment of every day. Those
who do not remain faithful to him will be left outside. Jesus is
warning people of faith not to take their salvation for granted. What
he does say is that salvation is not guaranteed for anyone. 'We
are your people' will not be good enough. What Jesus is
saying is that no one, no matter who he is, has an absolute guarantee
of being saved, of being accepted by God. No one is saved by claiming
identity with a particular group or by carrying a particular name
tag. So, merely being
descended from Abraham, Jacob and all the prophets - as the Jews were
- did not count; there is no such thing as national salvation.
d) “Some
are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Lastly,
Jesus indicates that many who think themselves respectable or 'high
and mighty,' so called 'movers
and shakers,' will not be included
in the kingdom of God; and many who are considered disreputable or
'looked down upon,'
so-called ‘down and outers,'
will be included. The list of 'saved'
will shock and amaze us. Why? Because God’s ways are not our ways.
A
story is told of a wealthy woman who, when she reached heaven, was
shown a very plain mansion. She objected. “Well,” she was
told, “that is the house you prepared for yourself.” “Whose
is that fine mansion across the way?” she asked. “It
belongs to your gardener,” was the answer. “How is it that
he has one so much better than mine?” “The houses here are
prepared from materials that are sent up,” she was told. “We
do not choose them: you do that by your earthly faithfulness.”
So,
will only a few be saved? But then that is not the issue. For God
loves all of us and wills us to be saved. The issue is to discipline
ourselves so that we be able to respond faithfully and at every
moment to God's call and thus, with His help, attain salvation. This
will then serve as the materials we send up to heaven for the house
being built for us.
“WHOM THE LORD LOVES, HE
DISCIPLINES”:
In
the Second Reading of today the author of the Letter to the Hebrews
speaks about the discipline
of God and raises the age-old philosophical question: why do bad
things happen to good people? There’s no satisfactory answer to
human suffering and natural disasters, e.g., floods, fires and
earthquakes. Some may argue that hardships can strengthen our
character, make us better human beings. We’ve heard that
expression: no pain, no gain. But in the final analysis, suffering is
a mystery. Yet in the Christian tradition, inescapable suffering,
accepted with trust in God, and united with the sufferings of Jesus,
can be redemptive for others. Why? Because our faith proclaims that
the sufferings of Jesus were precisely this: redemptive or healing
for all mankind.
When we discipline
ourselves, then, with God's grace, we can
remain faithful in our following of Jesus. At times we have to
struggle to live the Christian life. But God prepares us for the
difficulties we will encounter. Like a responsible parent, God must
at times discipline us. That discipline may cause some grief. But
through it, we learn God's ways of love, justice, and peace.
The problems and
sufferings we have all experienced, and will be experiencing, are
parts of the discipline we undergo to remain faithful in responding
to God's invitation. Discipline and no other is the “narrow gate”
through which we enter into eternal life.
CONCLUSION:
In
conclusion, three questions can be posed from today’s readings:
First, 'Who
is to be saved?' Everyone is to be saved. That is the
meaning of the universality of salvation. Jesus does not at all
say that only a few will be saved. The whole thrust of the Gospel,
and especially of the Gospel according to Luke which we are reading,
is that Jesus came to bring God's love and freedom to the whole
world. The message of that Gospel is that there is not a single
person, not a single people, nation, race, or class, which is
excluded from experiencing the love and liberation that God offers.
However, the universality of Christ’s salvation is not a guarantee
that we will be saved. The mere fact of being baptized does not
equate to salvation.
Second, 'How
are we saved?' The unequivocal answer is that salvation
comes from Christ through his Church. This explains the Catholic
focus on the sacraments. The Church is the sacrament of Christ and so
she makes available his life-giving sacraments to those of us who
have been incorporated into his Body. The role of the Church from the
beginning until now is first and foremost to “go
out to all the world and tell the Good News.” It
explains why the Church is evangelical in her mission.
Third, the Gospel
speaks of entering the narrow gate. The question now is 'Are
you saved?' The narrow gate indicates that salvation is
not cheap. We need to discipline ourselves, use the the things that
happen to us to help us grow, rather than get us down. We need to
remember that the tested people, the people with the most problems,
the last people, may be the ones who get in the door first. Those are
the people that will easily slip through the narrow door. Indeed,
many are lost because they do not choose the narrow door. They prefer
a religion that is not too demanding, one that does not make it
mandatory to attend Mass every Sunday. We may be surprised to
discover that some who seem less worthy will enter the kingdom before
us.
To end, salvation is a gift
from a God which must
be willingly and fully embraced. Christian life is a daily struggle
to rise to a higher spiritual plain. It is wrong to sit back and
relax after we have made a personal commitment to Christ. We cannot
remain stagnant in our loyalty to God’s kingdom; unless we move
forward we shall move backward. And this is the Good News of today.
***************************
No comments:
Post a Comment