August 22, 2010
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
“I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them…” Isaiah 66:18-19a
At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. Hebrews 12:11-13
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’” Luke 13:24-25
Piety
Some people carry their crosses with great style and dignity. Others drag their crosses and are forever complaining about what others are not doing. Drooping hands and weak knees need straight paths. Christ is the way, the truth and the life. His invitation to discipleship is to take of our crosses and to follow him. When Christ was asked if only a few people would be saved he challenged us in his answer to strive to enter through the narrow gate. Piety keeps us struggling ahead on the narrow path and gets us through the narrow gate. There is no short cut if we want to follow Christ. There is no bypass of the cross if we want to share his life. He calls us to do more than go up to Jerusalem with him. Piety is dangerous because it leads us closer and closer to his cross until we are not just in the shadow of the cross. It leads us to the day that we are willing to take Christ off his cross and to take his place with our crosses. A genuine piety is not for the faint hearted. The paradox of piety is that the last will be first and the first will be last.
Study
Piety is worth studying in the saints. They are the ones who have made Christ real in their time and age. Saints live the lessons of Christ as an updating of Christ. The Saints are the ones who are first in their following of Christ. They love Christ with their entire mind and their hearts. They are transparencies of Christ. They are known by Christ because he can see himself in them. They know each other in Christ because their hearts go out in a special way to saints. Whether we are recognizing in a saint something of our idealized self or something of what we would like to be in our following of Christ makes no difference. How close we can come to Christ is in the fullness of offering all of our selves to him. The saint truly loves Christ with all their mind, heart and soul. Nothing is held back when we love each other in Christ.
Action
The narrow way gives all of us away in the name of Christ. I cannot love you because of Christ. I have to love you to love Christ. I cannot give you Christ as another. I have to give you Christ as myself. Christ embraces us with the heart that is pierced on the cross. The water that flows from his heart is the Sacramental waters of Baptism which gives us all of Christ as a prisoner of our hearts. I have to let Christ out of my heart by love. Wherever there is love, God is there. When we share our lives with another in love it is Christ we give to each other. When we recline at the table in the kingdom of God, our Eucharist makes us one with Christ. He nourishes the life that began in our baptism with the love of our hearts that keeps us on the straight and the narrow path. Our love is his love when we share our hearts with one another. It is the discipline of the Lord that keeps us on the straight and the narrow path of righteousness. We come to the Father through Christ.
