21st Sunday in ordinary time, Cycle C. Today’s readings: Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30
The story is told of a rather self-important lady attempting to enter a bank on the Via del Corso in Rome while carrying various bags of shopping from designer stores. Unfortunately, due to her corpulence and the bags she carries, she gets stuck in the narrow, tube-like, security door, while a loud automated voice starts blaring insistently: “You are kindly requested to pass through this door one at a time.” Red-faced and dishevelled, she squeezes back out into the Roman sunshine, never to visit that particular branch again.
This possibly apocryphal story always comes to mind whenever I encounter Our Lord’s invitation in today’s Gospel: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate”. Yet the point Jesus is making has little to do with the comfort with which we navigate doorways, and more to do with how we approach the subject of our salvation.
In fact, his bidding is prompted by the question: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus knows that if he states that many will be saved, we may be lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that salvation is something cheap and easy. If, on the other hand, he claims that only few will be saved, we may despair, fearing that God is harsh and unyielding, impossible to please.
For this reason, Jesus indicates that it is not a matter of quantity but quality; there is no set number, large or small, some quota that – when reached – will see heaven’s gate barred to all the rest, whether deserving or not. Yet at the same time, God’s mercy, while indeed great, is not to be abused.
This point is underlined by what is possibly one of the most chilling images found in Jesus’s teachings, that of the master who eventually locks the door to his house. When those outside knock and request entry he utters this terrible phrase: “I do not know where you are from.” His message is clear: their actions reveal that they are no children or friends of his, and therefore have no place in his home.
Then, sounding like people trying to gain entry into some fancy venue by claiming to know the owner or the manager, they insist: “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.”
Pope Francis masterfully applies this attitude to Church people: “The Lord will not recognise us for our claims: ‘But look, Lord, I used to belong to that association, I was friends with this monsignor, this cardinal, this priest...’. No, claims do not count. The Lord will recognise us only for our humble and good life, a life of faith that resulted in good works.”
The Lord will not recognise us for our claims: ‘But look, Lord, I used to belong to that association, I was friends with this monsignor, this cardinal, this priest...’- Pope Francis
As if to drive home the point that it is not a question of numbers, Jesus claims that the same people left outside the master’s house will then see their places taken by people from afar, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies (like Isaiah’s in today’s first reading) that other nations would eventually be offered the inheritance that Israel rigidly considered its own.
Two thousand years later, might the same challenge be laid at our feet? We too, despite having eaten and drunk with the Master (in the Eucharist), or heard him preach in our streets (in Scripture and Church doctrine), may find our way into heaven blocked by our arrogance and hardness of heart.
In another teaching, Pope Francis reminds us: “The door of God’s mercy is narrow but is always open to everyone! God does not have preferences, but always welcomes everyone, without distinction. A narrow door to restrain our pride and our fear; a door open wide because God welcomes us without distinction.”
bgatt@maltachurchtribunals.org