THE NARROW GATE
Isaiah 66: 18-21; Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13; Luke 13: 22-30
This past week, as I was preparing my
homily, a memory came to mind of when I was seven years old and in First Grade
at St. Raphael School in East Meadow, NY.
My teacher was an elderly nun named Sister Irenese, a member of the
School Sisters of Notre Dame. Now many have horror stories about the
experiences they had at the hands of the nuns who taught them while they were students
in Catholic schools, but I have to tell you that I have nothing but high praise
and fond memories of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. To me, they were saintly
and devoted educators, and their discipline was firm but gentle. For instance, when Sister Irenese had reason to
reprimand a disruptive student, she generally would pinch his cheek, with the reproach,
“You’re a bold little boy!” . . . which
of course NEVER was ME.
One day, she instructed my class to stand in
the back of the classroom. And there,
Sister Irenese stood in front of each of us and asked us, one by one, to
recount a line from Scripture. “Let
there be light,” the first child said, and Sister nodded and moved to the
next child. “I am the Good Shepherd,”
said the next student, winning Sister’s approving smile. “Adam and Eve were
naked and yet felt no shame,” another student proudly blurted out . . . and
Sister Irenese shook her head, frowned and moved on to the next student. This went on with all fifty of us, and in the
midst of the familiar “God is love,” “Thou shalt not steal” and “Jesus
wept,” a “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Ask not what your
country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” also somehow slipped
in.
All the while, as I stood near the end of
the line, I kept nervous hope that no one would give the quote that I planned.
Finally, it was my turn and Sister Irenese stood in front of me, visibly weary
and frustrated at hearing many of the same biblical quotes and misquotes repeated
over and over again. “Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do,” I proclaimed. Sister’s eyes widened in
amazement and her clenched jaw dropped.
“That’s beautiful! Say it again,”
she commanded, “loudly so the whole class can hear.” “Father forgive them,
for they know not what they do.” A tiny smile forced the corners of the
lips on her wrinkled face upward. Behind her wire rimmed glasses, Sister’s approving
eyes met mine, and brimmed with both tears and wonder, now convinced that they
were gazing upon someone who was one day destined to become a priest, or a
bishop, or maybe even pope!
Boy have I turned out to be a big
disappoint! . . . Sorry, Sister Irenese!
But I can guarantee you, that of all the
quotes given that day so many years ago by my First Grade classmates, not one
of them came from the Scripture passage that we just heard. “Enter through the narrow gate?” . . . “I do not know where you are from?” . . .
“Depart from me, you evil doers?” . . .
“There will be wailing and grinding of teeth?” . . . “Some are last who
will be first and some are first will who will be last?” - Certainly not on
anyone’s list of memorable quotes. As a
matter of fact, most people would like to forget that Jesus even said
them.
And the whole topic of today’s gospel - the afterlife
. . . eternity . . . salvation . . . heaven . . . where it is . . . what it’s like . . . who’s
there . . . how may are there – seems to be irrelevant to many in society
today. Why? Because most people today feel that no matter
what, no matter how they’ve lived their life, heaven will be their ultimate
destination. We live at a time where
there is an increasing sense of entitlement in society. People believe they are
entitled to food, housing, public education from pre-Kindergarten through
college, health care, prescription drugs, a job, family leave, retirement
income, unemployment benefits, disability payments, legal representation, phone
service, connection to the Internet, and more. If individuals cannot provide
those things for themselves, then they expect the government to supply them.
This sense of entitlement carries over into
religion. Many Christians simply feel
they are entitled to salvation and a place in the kingdom of heaven. They do
not have to do anything. If God loves us, if God is all good, if God is
merciful, then God will not condemn anyone. What a person does or does not do
ultimately makes little difference. How convenient! Jesus did all the work and we don’t have to
do any. But this attitude is certainly
contrary to what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel. Jesus tells the disciple who
asks, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” that the path to salvation is only accomplished
by entering through the “narrow gate.”
What does it mean to enter through the narrow
gate?
Yesterday I saw a post on Facebook from a
religious site that contained this quote:
Just
be a good person,
Love
who you can,
Help
where you can,
Give
what you can.
Sounds nice, right? Beautiful?
Inspirational? Motivational? NO!!!
Jesus certainly calls us to do more than this:
He calls us to not just be a good person,
but to "be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."
He commands us to not just love who we can,
but to "love one another as I have loved you" . . . your neighbor as
yourself . . . even your enemies.
He calls us to do more than just help where
we can, but he washed his disciples feet at the Last Supper as a model for us
to follow . . . to serve tirelessly as he served . . . to minister to the
hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, the least
of our brothers.
And he challenged us to give more than what
we can, but to "sell everything you have and then come follow me."
THIS is what Jesus means by entering through
the narrow gate! Not to live life in a
safe, convenient, easy, wishy-washy way.
But to live our lives in a radical way – HIS way . . . a way in which we
pick up our cross daily; in which we forgive seventy times seven times; in
which we become the greatest in HIS Kingdom because we diminish ourselves to being
the least in THIS kingdom by rendering ourselves servants to all.
HIS way – in which HE becomes the top
priority in our lives because we love him with all our heart, with all our
mind, with all our soul, with our entire being; in which we love one another as
he has loved us . . . totally and unconditionally.
HIS way, through the narrow gate, because he
said, “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”
The gate to heaven is narrow because it is precisely in the shape of Jesus himself. It looks like him, it’s shaped like him, it is precisely the size of him because Jesus himself IS the gate you get into heaven through. Jesus is the way - the way to the Father, the way to Life, the way to salvation. Jesus lived on earth to show us the way. To follow him on this way means that we are to walk as he walked, to follow in his footsteps, to live as he lived. A way indicates progression. When we follow him, we come to where he is now.
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Perhaps Jesus’ response to the disciple in today’s Gospel was really meant to say, “You know what, that’s none of your business and it’s not even the right question. The real question you should be concerned with is, “Lord, will I be saved?” And my response to that is, “What are you doing this day to make that happen?”
And so, as for me, maybe I ought to lose some weight. Maybe I need to shed the pounds of sin, of harbored grudges, of stinginess, of selfishness, and of self-obsession. Maybe I need to stick with an exercise program of daily walks, where I walk in the way of Jesus. I need to trim the excess in my life, because apparently, the Pearly Gates are a tight squeeze.
