“Do your best to go in through the narrow door.” Luke 13: 22-30
If you find the readings of this Twenty-First Sunday in ordinary time confusing, be assured that you are not alone. I suggest that the smoothest way of approaching the gospel-reading is to reflect, firstly, on who we are as human beings and how we might go about living our humanity. Secondly, today’s first reading from Isaiah offers us some clues for making sense of the gospel-reading.
I suspect that many of us Christians, influenced by memories of our early religious education, seem to think that the purpose of our lives is to earn our way into heaven by living decent, morally upright lives. However, if we hold firm to the conviction that we have been created in the image of God and were loved into life through the instrumentality of the love our parents expressed to one another, we can only conclude that we are made for love and relationship. Our humanity is at its best when we reach out in love and respectful relationship to everyone we encounter. God’s love for us and for all of humanity is boundless and freely given. We don’t have to earn it. When we live true to our humanity, we are in the process of sharing with others the love that God has implanted in us.
Today’s reading from Isaiah is set in the context of God’s chosen people, following their return from exile, involving themselves in the rebuilding of their nation. Isaiah had been busy reminding them that they had been chosen by God to be instrumental in bringing to life God’s dream for the world. However, there is a bite in the very last sentence as Isaiah informs his audience that some of the foreigners and pagans, who have already been attracted to the Chosen People and their culture, will be attracted to becoming priests and Levites. In other words, Isaiah was reminding the Hebrew people that they would be enriched by other cultures and that the vocation of priestly leadership was not to be reserved exclusively to them. Isaiah had earlier reminded the Hebrew people that their God was full of surprises and would not be contained by narrow and restrictive, human-designed regulations. Isaiah had previously expressed God’s clear message to the People of Israel: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways. – it is God who speaks. Yes, the heavens are as high above the earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 8-9)
Isaiah was also making the point to his people that living true to their humanity and opening themselves to be enriched to other cultures would not exempt them from culture-shock and other obstacles and conflicts.
Today’s second reading from Hebrews is a reminder to the early Christian community to whom it was originally directed that their efforts to live their humanity and give expression to the message of Christ would not be free of obstacles and conflicts. It is also an exhortation to them not to slip into self-pity or settle for the mediocre or to develop martyr-complexes, for they, too, would have a role in bringing to life God’s evolving dream for humanity. And isn’t that our role as God’s people and disciples of Jesus Christ in our 21st century world?
That then, is a good segue into today’s gospel-reading, in which we hear from an un-named questioner, who seems to think that entry into heaven has to be earned. The questioner was almost certainly a man (custom and tradition forbade women to ask questions of a man in public), who seemed to be assuming that he was among the few to be saved. But Jesus refused to be drawn into the numbers and, instead, told a story that there were people in the community whose only involvement with Jesus was that they had once had a meal with him. They could produce no evidence of doing anything for anyone that resonated with God’s Law or Jesus’ teaching. The reference in Jesus’ story to people coming from east, west, north and south (from all over the world) to join in the feast taking place in God’s kingdom is reminiscent of the account in today’s first reading from Isaiah of people from all cultures and nations being drawn to join the Hebrews, fresh from exile, in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Jesus was suggesting that only those who were broad-minded and opened hearted to welcoming strangers and foreigners, and were able to let go of their exclusiveness would qualify for entrance through the narrow gate.
The very mention of the “narrow gate” and the competition and struggle required to gain entry through it leaves me wondering just what Jesus was getting at. Could it be that he was suggesting that the ones who would have the biggest struggle to gain entry would be those who were full of their own importance, who had a sense of privilege and giant egos? With self-importance such as that, they would be the ones locking themselves out.
People of that ilk just don’t know what it’s like to mix with ordinary people who genuinely resonate with the message Jesus lived and proclaimed. Ordinary people who can live and work side by side with anyone and everyone have no difficulty lining up with other ordinary people, knowing that their turn for entry will come in God’s time.