Enter through the Narrow Door

As the summer is now coming to its close, we still find ourselves within the Ordinary Time season working our way through the Gospel of St. Luke.  Within the Gospel readings of these many weeks, we have been traveling with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He makes His way from the beginnings of His ministry in Galilee to Jerusalem, where we know that He will eventually undergo His passion, death and resurrection.

As we follow along with this journey as we attend Holy Mass on Sundays, we must realize that we are not only witnesses to this journey as we hear the Holy Gospel, but even more so we are fellow travelers with Jesus on this journey.  But for us, this is the journey of our very lives.  The ministry of our Lord has been inaugurated in our lives as we continue to spend moments of prayer in worship, but the journey is not just these moments at Holy Mass, but it is rather every moment of our daily lives as we seek to more closely follow our Lord.

In the Gospel reading for the 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear Jesus speak of the ‘narrow door.’  The Gospel reading begins: “Jesus went through cities and towns teaching – all the while making His way toward Jerusalem.  Someone asked Him, ‘Lord, are they few in number who are to be saved?’  He replied: ‘Try to come in through the narrow door.  Many, I tell you, will try to enter and be unable.”  (Luke 13:22-24)

This question, “Are they few in number who are to be saved?” is one that was of great concern in the time of our Lord, and it is also one that is of concern to us today.  It is certainly a question that I have been asked many, many times.  Although today it is a question that is usually asked concerning some individual person.  I have been asked countless times, often when young students read of the horrible people that committed horrible acts throughout history, ‘Will that person go to heaven?”  Likewise I’ve also heard the question from many when the read of all of the tragic and horrible crimes that daily are reported in our newspapers and on TV; “Will these people go to heaven?” 

We must notice that Jesus did not answer this question directly when it was asked of Him, but rather He turned His attention to the much more important issue of our own individual lives.  As far as others go, maybe the most important thing that we can say is, that we trust in both the mercy and justice of Almighty God. 

But we must notice that Jesus did have an answer to the more important issue.  And it was an answer pointed to the individual.  “Try to enter through the narrow door.”  Jesus goes on to explain this answer further: “When once the master of the house has risen to lock the door and you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Sir, open for us,’ he will say in reply, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your company.  You taught in our streets.’  But he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from.’ (Luke 13:25-27a)

As we reflect upon this answer of our Lord, we must question where we spiritually find ourselves at the present moment and also what is our present relationship to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We notice that the desire of the one knocking is to be found in the kingdom of heaven, where Jesus is inside.  But the Lord tells us that there will be those outside who want to get in.  An important point to notice is that these individuals are outside the abode of Jesus from the beginning.  There is a separation between where they are and where the master of the house, our Lord Jesus, is.

When these individuals finally come to their senses and call out to our Lord, they will say to Him, “We ate and drank in Your company.  You taught in our streets.”  They will say that certainly they know something about Jesus and therefore should be able to be united with Him.  This saying draws the distinction that there is a significant difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus.

It is not enough to have only the externals of having ate and drank in His company or knowing that He preached in our streets or in our presence.  The question on the last day will be, has our life been changed because we ate and drank with our Lord, has our life been changed by hearing the words of Jesus.  Have we brought our lives into conformity with Him. 

As a part of our Future Direction program in these past few years, I have been praying and meditating on the ‘Prayer Before Holy Mass’ before the celebration of Holy Mass.  This prayer is found within our PNCC Prayer Book.  One portion of this prayer is: “May the Sacraments I will receive, the prayers I will say and the hymns I will sing bring me closer to Jesus and help me to be more like Him in all that I say and do.”  My attendance at Holy Mass, my hearing of the teachings of our Lord in the Scripture readings and through the homily and my reception of Holy Communion must point to my being more closely united to Jesus.  The prayer continues: “May the Holy Communion that I will receive give me strength, so that I may share faith, hope and love with the people I will meet.”  We also must see that in growing more closely united to Jesus it then allows us to witness to His presence to others and, in that presence, to serve others in the love of Jesus Christ. 

Through all of this we must realize that we are called to enter ever deeper into the presence of Christ in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  It is certainly important that we take some time each week to worship Almighty God as our Creator Who loves us.  It is vital to our spiritual life that we receive our risen Lord in the Sacrament of the Altar, the very Body and Blood of our Jesus Christ.  But as we continue to worship God and receive our Lord in Holy Communion, we must also continue to grow into an ever deeper relationship with Him.  We should desire to be fully united to Him at every moment of our lives.  There should be no moment when we are ever on the outside calling in. 

It is this attitude that is described as the ‘narrow door’ in the passage above.  St. Cyril of Alexandria speaks to this in his collection of homilies on the Gospel of Luke.  He says: “I now consider it my duty to mention why the door to life is narrow.  Whoever would enter must first before everything else possess an upright and uncorrupted faith and then a spotless morality, in which there is no possibility of blame, according to the measure of human righteousness.  One who has attained to this in kind and spiritual strength will enter easily by the narrow door and run along the narrow way.” (Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, Homily 99)

We all must say here that St. Cyril sets a very high bar.  One that we all might have a difficult time measuring up to.  But here too is where we must strive to be closely united to Jesus at every moment.  In seeking to be ever more closely united to Jesus, we cast our lives upon His love and His mercy as we continue to live lives following His way and living in His love.  In this, our goal of a ‘upright and uncorrupted faith’ and acting in a ‘spotless morality,’ we continue to be strengthened.  If we fall short of this ideal, we also know that in being united to Jesus, we can approach Him to seek forgiveness through the Sacrament of Penance.  And by this we can be restored to His fellowship and continue to grow ever closer to Him.

My brothers and sisters, as we continue in this Ordinary Time season to following the way of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem in the Gospel readings, let us also seek to follow His way ever more closely within our daily lives.  Let us seek to enter into eternal life through the narrow door.  But remember it’s narrowness will not be a concern, if we are truly united to Jesus, in both this life and the next.