Open the Door for Us

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Diane Bayne

Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  He answered them, “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.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’  Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, all you evildoers!’  And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out...(Luke 13:23-29)

Piety

For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  (Luke 13: 30)

Study

What a shock it must have been for the apostles to hear these words from Jesus!  As good, lifelong Jews, they assumed that they would be assured of admittance to the kingdom of God and that it is the Gentiles who will be refused admittance. 

According to New Testament Commentator William Barclay, here Jesus is clearly declaring that entry to the kingdom can never be automatic but is the result and the reward of struggle.  Barclay points out that the word for striving is the word from which the English word agony is derived.  Says Barclay, “. .the struggle to enter (the kingdom) must be so intense that it can be described as an agony of soul and spirit. . . The Christian way is like a climb up a mountain pathway towards a peak which will never be reached in this world. . . for the Christian, life is ever an upward and onward way.”  Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, p. 183. 

Action

The theme that the Christian way is always an uphill struggle is reiterated by many Christian authors.  In a recent book, Rediscovering Jesus, Matthew Kelly declares that “Everybody has a gap to close. . . and it’s a big gap. . . an obvious gap. . . (it’s) a gaping hole in my life and the life Jesus invites me to live in the Gospel.”  (Rediscovering Jesus, Matthew Kelly, pp. 112-113.)  According to Kelly, the only way we can close this gap is by getting close to Jesus.  Kelly then proceeds to list four actions by which all who call themselves Christians can close this gap:

1) Read the four Gospels, over and over, for fifteen minutes each day.

2) Practice The Prayer Process–a process to help you enter into a daily conversation with Jesus

3) Deny yourself.  Find a handful of small ways to deny yourself each day.

4) Practice spontaneous prayer.  Talk to Jesus about the events of your day as they are unfolding. 

Says Kelly, “Our lives change when our habits change. God uses new habits to transform us.  These four habits will have a beautiful and radical impact on your life if you allow them to sink their roots deep into your life.   So begin now.  This is a fresh start.  Be bold. Resist any temptation to put it off.  Close the Gap.  Begin it now.”  (Kelly, p. 115)

In the language of Jesus: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. . . For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Or, to put it another way– and in the language of Cursillo: ULTREYA!  Onward and Upward! Old age is not for Sissies–and neither is following Christ.