Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many…will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” (Luke 13:23-24)
Emilie Griffin wrote a book entitled Turning. It describes how she graduated from college, doubting the existence of God and thinking that religion was a crutch that weak people turned to for support.
But Emilie also graduated with a deep love of nature. And it was this love of nature that eventually got her to rethink her ideas about God and religion. She read everything she could find on the subject, especially, the writings of C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton, who also struggled with questions similar to hers. To make a long story short, after much study, reflection, and soul searching. Emilie became a believer.
Emilie is a living example of what Jesus means in today’s gospel when he says that the gate into the kingdom is narrow. It’s not narrow because God makes it that way so only a few can pass through. It’s narrow because we make it that way by our doubts and choices.
There’s a classic Peanuts cartoon that shows Charlie Brown getting up one morning and looking out his bedroom window. It’s a lovely winter day. Snow covers the ground. It’s very cold, but perfect for skiing. So Charlie bundles up with several layers of clothes. Then he puts on his big gloves and his skis. When he moves toward the door, he discovers he’s so bundled up that he can’t make it through the door. So he stands there frustrated, screaming at the top of his lungs.
The image of Charlie Brown too bundled up to pass through the door is a good image for many of us today. We want to follow Jesus, but we’re too bundled up in possessions, concerns, attitudes and behaviors. For each of us something holds us back from a deeper experience of God -- perhaps, an addiction, an attachment, lack of trust, desire to control, self-centeredness, or fear. So, like Charlie, we wind up standing at the door, frustrated and screaming. Unaided, few of us can make it across the threshold. With God’s help, on the other hand, nothing can hold us back.
A man threw a big bash for his beautiful, marriageable daughter. Now, he was a very rich Texan with tens of thousands of cattle and acres of land, hundreds of oil wells and a large twenty-nine-room mansion with an Olympic sized swimming pool. He invited all the eligible young men he knew to meet his daughter. After the party had been going on for awhile, he gathered everyone at the pool. Lining up all the young men at one end, which he had filled with snakes and alligators, he said, “To the first one of you who jumps into the pool and swims to the other end I will give the choice of one million dollars, a thousand acres of choice land, or the hand of my daughter in marriage. No sooner were the words spoken when there was a splash at the far end and a streak through the pool. A young man emerged, setting what must have equaled an Olympic record—what it was before Michael Phelps broke it only a few days ago in Athens. The Texan asked:” Do you want the million dollars?” The young man said: “No, thank you.” “The thousand acres?” Again the young man replied, “No, thank you.” Well then, the Texan said, you must want the hand of my lovely daughter in marriage? “No, thank you” Well, son, then just what is it that you do want?” “What I want, sir, is to know the name of the person who pushed me in the pool!”
In today’s gospel from Luke, Jesus says, in effect, that if we’re his followers in name only, going through the motions, being pushed or dragged along by others, but not really practicing the faith, we’re kidding ourselves about being in God’s favor. Instead, like the man knocking at the door in today’s gospel, when we ask the Lord to open the door of kingdom to us, the answer will be the same: “I do not know where you are from.”
That’s a pretty scary thought, isn’t it? Yes, ours is a God of unconditional love; yes, ours is a God of infinite mercy, but that doesn’t mean we can get away with not living like a believer. Faith without practice, you see, doesn’t count for much in the divine scheme of things.
Why is it God may not know where we’re from? Here are three obvious examples:
Lack of Love. Jesus confronted the harshness of his times with a message grounded in gentleness and grace. He believed that our attitudes toward one another reflect our attitude about God. It’s impossible to feel close to God if our hearts are bloated with bitterness toward anyone; or, just as importantly, shriveled up with indifference toward the suffering of another, wherever on earth that other is located. To be at peace with God, we must first be at peace with each other, including our enemies. To serve God, we must serve one another, particularly the least and most vulnerable of our human family.
Refusing to Forgive. Jesus saw forgiveness as the fuel of faith. Without forgiveness, faith does not grow or deepen. It stagnates and eventually dies. Faith without forgiveness, like faith without practice, is empty and powerless -- not pleasing to God
Conforming to Convention. Jesus was a nonconformist. He recognized that kingdom builders would have to be unpopular; to risk safety and security; to be mocked and humiliated; to be treated as outcasts or misfits; and to be viewed as failures or losers. He continuously reminded his followers that kingdom building asked a heavy price. It’s not a calling for those who desire the easy life or think of the good life only in material terms. Jesus was clear that building the kingdom would require all we have for all the time we have.
The other day I spotted a car with a bumper sticker on it that read: “I found Jesus; He was behind the sofa the whole time.” Although intended to be sarcastic, the message contains a nugget of truth. Jesus doesn’t get lost, we do. He doesn’t walk away from us, we walk away from him. Changing metaphors, he’s always there, the same narrow gate. Like Charlie Brown’s over bundling, it’s our own doubts and choices that keep us from getting through.
Anthony J. Sciolino
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 22, 2004.
Isaiah 66:18-21
Hebrews 12: 5-7
Luke 13:22-30.