TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Many Will Come from East and West
Everyone likes to go to a house where the doors are always open in welcome. That is how Jesus wants the Church to be: a house of welcome open to anyone. Jesus says of himself that he is the gate or the door. He welcomes all who seek him and even goes out of his way to look for people. But at the same time the door is narrow. We have to make an effort to become like Jesus and to serve and love God and people with him and to live in the spirit of the gospel. With Jesus we now thank the Father, and ask that we too may be open to all.
First Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21
“I know everything they’ve ever done or thought. I’m going to come and then gather everyone—all nations, all languages. They’ll come and see my glory. I’ll set up a station at the center. I’ll send the survivors of judgment all over the world: Spain and Africa, Turkey and Greece, and the far-off islands that have never heard of me, who know nothing of what I’ve done nor who I am. I’ll send them out as missionaries to preach my glory among the nations. They’ll return with all your long-lost brothers and sisters from all over the world. They’ll bring them back and offer them in living worship to God. They’ll bring them on horses and wagons and carts, on mules and camels, straight to my holy mountain Jerusalem,” says God. “They’ll present them just as Israelites present their offerings in a ceremonial vessel in the Temple of God. I’ll even take some of them and make them priests and Levites,” says God.
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13
Have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?
My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,
but don’t be crushed by it either.
It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects.
God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God?
At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!
Gospel: Luke 13:22-30
He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem.
A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”
He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’
“You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’
“That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in—and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.”
Prayer
Lord our God,
you are the Father of all;
you want to set all people free
with the freedom won for us the hard way
by your Son Jesus Christ.
Give us a true sense of mission,
that we may be your people
open to every person and culture.
Make us humbly recognize
the good that is found everywhere,
and to recreate and perfect it
in the image of Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord for ever. Amen.
Reflection:
21 August 2022
Luke 13:22-30
Who will be saved?
In today’s passage, Luke presents a Jesus who, quite unlikely of himself, uses threats and condemnations. Jesus speaks of a narrow gate that is almost impossible to pass and is closed. Latecomers are badly rejected: “It is too late,” cries the owner, “get out of here! Away from me! I do not know you! There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!”
One who loved tax collectors and sinners and willingly accepted their invitations to dinner now slams the door in the faces of his friends. What did prompt Jesus to pronounce these harsh words?
Indeed, this was Luke’s way of addressing certain wrong behaviours that were taking roots in his community. The presumption of being righteous before God, arrogance, pride and the belief that good intentions are sufficient for salvation were infiltrating his communities. Luke realises that the risk of being excluded from God’s Kingdom looms on many Christians and feels compelled to refute the false optimism that has spread.
The question raised to Jesus was, “Is it true that a few people will be saved?” (v. 23). Jesus takes no position on the subject. He prefers not to speculate about the end of the world and eternal salvation. However, Jesus wants to clarify how one becomes his disciple and enters the Kingdom of God.
The first condition is to “Do your best to enter by the narrow door” (v. 24). To pass through a narrow door means to make oneself small. One cannot be a disciple of Jesus unless he makes himself small and servant of all. The Pharisees were good people; they fasted twice a week and were not thieves or adulterers. However, their fault was their self-righteous attitude. They claim to enter the banquet hall, shouting their reasons. They say: “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets” (v. 26).
Who are they? Luke presents them as people who knew Jesus well, believed in Jesus and ate the bread with him. Luke was referring to the members of the Christian community. Their names are written in the records of baptisms, and they read the Gospel and participate in the Eucharistic banquet. Moreover, they believe their participation in the Eucharist guarantees their entry into the Kingdom of God. But, Jesus refutes that notion.
“I do not know you,” the Lord tells lukewarm Christians who are contented with belonging externally to the community and celebrate empty liturgies, which are reduced to external rites that do not transform life. This condemnation is not a conclusive rejection, not an exclusion from eternal salvation.
In Chapter 9 of Luke’s Gospel, “Jesus took a child and stood him by his side and said,’ The least among you all, is the one who is the greatest!”’ (Lk 9:46-48). Who does not strive to become small cannot take part in the banquet of the Kingdom.