The Narrow Door

Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 105 (104):3-4 Let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice; turn to the Lord and his strength; constantly seek his face.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Ephesians 6:1-9; Psalm 144; Luke 13:22-30

Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' "Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' "But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." (Luke 13:22-30)

The Narrow Door John Henry Newman, writing during the 1830s, stated that religion was criticized for being presented as gloomy and severe. He was saying that there was a common aversion to references to the judgment of God. God, people thought, ought be portrayed as benevolent and unthreatening. Now, of course it is an essential teaching of Scripture that God is rich in merciful love, that he is kind and compassionate, forgiving of those who repent. But consider the writings of the prophets. There is the marvellous teaching on God as Husband of his people, ever ready to receive back his erring spouse. However, there is running through them all the dominant theme of a divine judgment, usually a judgment worked out and manifested in temporal events. If the people do not repent of their present infidelity, the harvests will fail, the enemy will invade, the city will fall, the people will be taken in chains to another country. Christ is in the tradition of the prophets, revealing far more fully what they had borne witness to seminally. The love of God as revealed by Christ is far more compelling than the prophets had shown. So too was the judgment of God. Christ spoke just as much of the judgment of God as did the prophets, and perhaps much more so. In his teaching though, the judgment of God was not primarily manifested in temporal events (though it certainly would thus show itself, as in the future destruction of Jerusalem), but in eternity. The final judgment of God, though not an absolutely exclusive teaching of Jesus Christ, was very distinctive of his teaching. Our Gospel today is an instance of this, oft repeated. To the question, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" our Lord gives this warning. "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last" (Luke 13:22-30).

The practical import of the Judgment is expressed by our Lord in a variety of ways. For instance, he repeatedly tells his audience to watch, ever to be ready. In our Gospel today, he warns them not to take the merely easy route, the path of ease and of least difficulty. The image he uses is that of the narrow door. Perhaps the picture here is of a large and spacious house, a palace of an important notable. There is a broad and public gateway into the precincts, and a smaller door more easily controlled and operated, through which special guests come for certain functions. Cities had their large gates through which concourses of people of all kinds with all their baggage could pass. There were also the much smaller gates that more carefully discriminated entries. Whatever of that, our Lord’s point is clear. The “narrow door” is the door of greater difficulty, the door through which not all will easily pass. Entry involves a struggle, a striving. The verb used for “strive” is that from which has come the English “agony” (agoonizesthe). The allied noun (agoonia) is the word Luke uses of Christ’s state in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ was (“striving”) in “agony,” and the door through which he was to pass was the narrow door of his Passion and Death. It was the path of the will of God, leaving him bereft of all but his obedience to the Father. That narrow door through which he passed involved leaving all behind. On one occasion a rich young man came in haste and enthusiasm to our Lord and asked what he must do to gain eternal life. He had kept God’s commandments from his earliest years. Jesus looked on him with love and extended to him a priceless invitation. Go, he said, sell all you own and give to the poor — and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. It was a much narrower door than that he was used to. But he was not prepared to strive to enter. So he went away sad. Every day, the duties of our state in life and vocation will constitute difficult choices by us for God. We must be prepared to accept them.

Let us conjure up an imagine symbolizing the life of man. There is before him the broad entrance that allows for all types, all attitudes, all luggage. There is the narrow gate that admits only of certain persons, certain citizens, certain invitees. This is the gate, the doorway, of obedience to God’s will and detachment from the luggage of life that distracts our heart from the one thing necessary. Let us then strive to enter by that gate, the gate of union with Jesus Christ who passed through the gate of obedience to the will of his Father, inviting all those who love him to follow in his footsteps.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second reflection: (Luke 13:22-30)

Entering By The Narrow Door "Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, 'Sir, will there be only a few saved?' He said to them, 'Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.'..." (Luke 13:22-23). The question put to our Lord about the salvation of only a few was not answered by our Lord directly. But it reminds us of the overwhelming importance of salvation. The question I must ask myself is, what am I doing to be saved? Closely related to this is, what am I doing for the salvation of others, such as the members of my family, my friends, my colleagues? Ignatius of Loyola used to say to Francis Xavier: what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Nothing is more important than our eternal salvation. Whatever be the cost, we must take the necessary means, and our Lord's answer to the above question is, put a lot of effort into this. "Try your best to enter by the narrow door." Do all that it takes to follow God's will not matter what it takes, even at the cost of your very life. Do not presume on your salvation "because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed."

Let us endeavour to maintain a high standard of daily spiritual effort, the effort required to please God in everything, in all that we do — and by that witness draw others to enter by the narrow door too.

(E.J.Tyler)