Enter Through the Narrow Gate

August 26, 2007

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Rev. Joseph McCloskey, S.J.

I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them. Isaiah 66:18-19

Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. Luke 13:24

Piety

Let us pray: Lord, help us to find the narrow gate so that we may be among the people you gather to see your glory. Count us among the many who attempt to enter. Give us the strength of heart to rise about the petty rivalries and material pursuits in this lifetime so that we may secure a place with you forever in the next. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/082607.shtml

“He saved others and himself he did not save.” These words could apply to any one of us if we were to die at an unready moment in our lives. My notion of salvation is an ocean of God’s mercy that we are diving into. The first ripple is our own salvation. The next ripple would be the family. Then friends and finally strangers who come our way because of the work we do for the poor. Our outer ripples would not be true ripples if the inner ones were missing. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?” Our souls are saved by what we do for the poor.

Our piety is what makes it possible for the Lord to recognize himself in us. To be locked out because we are unrecognized by the Lord because of what we have left undone for the poor and the needy, is all too possible. My vision of the first moment of judgment at the end of our lives is the Lord looking at us as the Composite of all the needy people who have ever asked our help. Even at the last moment of life I imagine the Lord looking at us with the needs of the human race all around him and giving us the chance to embrace him in all the needs that surround our lives. Life is a practice for that last moment. Piety is the strength of our love reaching out to the one who needs us. Life itself is a practice for being ready for that last moment.

Action

We enter through the narrow gate in what we do for the poor. We make straight the path for ourselves in what we do for the lowest and the last. The discipline of the Lord is seen in how much of ourselves we share with the needy. Some of the lowest, the last and the least will be first in the kingdom of God. They will bring us into heaven by the help we have given them. Those of us who have had much will be some of the last. We do not want to be left locked out of heaven because the Lord does not see us as those that took care of him in the needy of the world. We need to study the needs of our world to know what our actions must be if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven. We come from the richest nation of the world and we do not want to be spiritually bankrupt when we reach for the kingdom of heaven at the end days.