21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) Trust, yes – complacency, no!

Fr. Manuel João, comboni missionary
Sunday Reflection
from the womb of my whale, ALS
Our cross is the pulpit of the Word

Trust, yes – complacency, no!

Year C – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 13:22-30: “Strive to enter through the narrow door”

This Sunday’s Gospel reminds us that we are journeying with Jesus towards Jerusalem. To be on a journey is the condition, the modus vivendi of the Christian. “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). We are “strangers and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11). We are pilgrims towards a goal set before us, always “further on”. We must never forget this essential reality of Christian life.

On the road, the Master has many encounters. Today someone asks him: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”. This person could be one of us. Indeed, he calls him “Lord”. We too consider the question important. What is at stake, in fact, is our salvation. Let us see how Jesus responds to this question.

1. “Strive to enter through the narrow door”

We expected figures or percentages, but Jesus, as on so many other occasions, refuses to satisfy our curiosity. A direct answer could either foster false security on the one hand, or on the other frighten and discourage us. As a prophet, Jesus instead admonishes his listeners: “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able”. In the parallel passage in Saint Matthew we read: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Mt 7:13-14). Thus, not only is the door narrow, but the road that leads to it is also restricted!

What is the narrow door? The Door is Christ (cf. Jn 10:7,9). But why narrow? Because it passes through the cross. And it is narrow not only in space, but also in time. It is a door that sooner or later will be shut. This perspective makes the author of the Letter to the Hebrews say: “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘today’” (Heb 3:13).

This Gospel passage can be further illuminated by what Jesus says after the failed vocation of the so-called rich young man: “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk 18:24-25; cf. Mk 10:23-25; Mt 19:23-24). Here it speaks of passing through the “eye of a needle”! Jesus uses a Semitic hyperbole: an intentionally exaggerated and paradoxical image to indicate the impossible.

Some authors have suggested that Jesus was referring to a small side gate in the walls of Jerusalem called the “needle’s eye”, so low and narrow that a camel could only pass through it by kneeling and stripped of its load. Even if this is probably a later symbolic elaboration, the image is suggestive. The camel, ritually unclean, was a symbol of wealth, trade and abundance. We must ask ourselves: will our “camel” pass through the “eye of the needle”? Only by becoming small, by kneeling, and by being stripped will it succeed!

2. “I do not know where you come from”

“When once the master of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us’, then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from’.”

We are faced with one of the hardest words in the Gospel. Saint Luke is the evangelist of Christ’s mercy and gentleness, yet here Jesus astonishes us with language that seems too drastic. How can this be reconciled with the parable where all are invited to the banquet: “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (Lk 14:15-24)? We were looking for a reassuring answer, but instead the Lord unsettles our certainties.

Jesus addresses his contemporaries, the people of Israel, but Saint Luke is thinking of the believers in his own community, where laxity had crept in, where some had grown complacent, believing themselves already “saved”, with full rights to the heavenly banquet.

Let us pay close attention: Jesus is speaking of us, who have listened to his word, eaten and drunk with him at the Eucharistic table. This reminds us that it is not enough to participate in Mass or attend the rites to be recognised by him. We must also recognise him on the roads of life: in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned (cf. Mt 25:31-46).

This word of Jesus sounds like a threat, but God’s “threats” are meant never to be fulfilled! They are intended to wake us from our slumber, to remind us of the seriousness of life and the sense of responsibility! Therefore, trust in God’s goodness and mercy, YES. Always and in every circumstance! Complacency, NO! Never! There is no such thing as cut-price Christianity! Carelessness, lightness and presumption that “everything will be fine” regardless, lead us to build our house on sand. Humility and prudence, on the other hand, build it on rock (cf. Mt 7:24-27).

“Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!”. So is everything finished? Is it the final, irrevocable sentence? We are left with the word of Jesus: “What is impossible for human beings is possible with God” (Lk 18:27).

3. “Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last”

Let us expect surprises! Saint Augustine says: “On that day many who thought themselves inside will find themselves outside, while many who thought themselves outside will be found inside”. To our amazement, some whom we considered among the last will be welcomed into Paradise with the red carpet, while we will find ourselves forced to make ourselves small in order to pass through the little gate of the “eye of the needle”!

For personal reflection

Let us meditate on this text of Saint Paul: “Each one should take care how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; but yet will be saved – though only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

Fr Manuel João Pereira Correia, mccj