21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, August 21, 2022

Isaiah 66: 18-21 + Psalm 117: 1-2 + Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13 + Luke 13: 22-30
Holy Spirit Catholic Church:  August 21, 2022

This Gospel text from Luke is perplexing and challenging.
If we listen closely enough, it can cause us to scratch our heads and wonder---
what does it mean?

We are to strive to enter through the narrow gate, but some won’t be strong enough?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to say some won’t be thin enough?
What about the first shall be last and the last first—
I know this is one of Jesus’ favorite sayings, but what point is he trying to make here?

Then there’s that troubling image of the locked door.
Didn’t Jesus recently tell us in Luke’s Gospel to knock knowing the door 
would be opened to us?
And not being let in because He does not know where we are from?
What does that mean, especially when Jesus then says he’ll open the door to strangers rolling in from all over the world:  from east and west, north and south.
It doesn’t seem to matter where these strangers are from, does it, 
for the door to swing wide open for them.

But then I am reminded of the context of this puzzling teaching, 
that it is given as Jesus is “making his way to Jerusalem.”
To Jerusalem:   where Jesus will plunge into His Passion, suffer a horrible death, 
and then be raised on the 3rd Day.

Jerusalem Jesus does not want “admirers.”  He wants disciples who will die with him.
Jesus does not want “adorers.”  He wants disciples who do what he does.
He expects something more than listening to his words and being taught by him here
in the Liturgy of the Word.
We are to become his word of hope and mercy to others. 

It is not enough to eat and drink with Him in the Eucharist.
We are to become His body for others, breaking open our lives to feed those 
hungering for God’s saving and healing love.

We cannot presume that simply because we attend Mass 
that we are going to be among the “saved.”
We cannot presume that simply because we do not break the ten commandments
the gate of heaven will swing wide open for us, because something more is required.
For we are challenged to keep the two great commandments of Jesus—
loving God with all we are and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

We presume that we will be among the last who are one day going to be first, 
but what if by our lives spent judging others we end up actually being among the first who are going to be last?
Are we strong enough to die to our pre-judgments of others, especially those different from us, and let go of this baggage so we can squeeze through the narrow gate?
Do we have the strength to die to condemning others who we think are great sinners 
in order to wiggle our way through the narrow gate?

Walking with Jesus along the road to Jerusalem means moving forward, 
a constant shedding of sinful attitudes, a widening of our hearts,
a deepening awareness that we still have a long way to go.

Which then becomes the answer to the question posed to us Catholics 
by some of our Protestant brothers and sisters—“Are you saved?”
Because the correct answer is we are “being saved.”
Salvation is an ongoing process.

Though there may be major conversions in our life when we turn back to the Lord Jesus with all our heart, it is all those daily conversions where we keep dying 
with the Lord to selfishness & living for others, which are stepping-stones along the way.
It is a never-ending process of dropping the baggage of self-preoccupation
and instead being concerned about others and their salvation.
For we do not complete our journey to the Heavenly Jerusalem alone on our own merits but instead arrive there together, others carrying us and we carrying others.

This is the reason for the Church, the community of those who have died with Christ 
in the saving waters of baptism and have risen with Him to new life.
As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the dedication of this church building, we are given a golden opportunity to reflect on what it means to “be church?”
We are the Church, we are the Body of Christ, the living temple of Holy Spirit.
We are living stones in this awesome mystery we call “the Church!!”

We do not belong to a select club of a chosen few, but a Church which welcomes everybody from every country and of every background.
In fact, because we have encountered the saving mercy of Jesus Christ,
we also go out into the world and share the good news of his saving love with everyone,
by our words and our deeds.

Because we have been blessed with the fullness of the Christian faith 
in the sacraments and the saints, in our understanding of Scripture and the moral life, 
we are called to share these blessings with others.
We do not exalt ourselves over others thinking we’ve got it made 
because we are Catholic, but because we are Catholic we know we are made 
to serve others and share with them the Good News of the Gospel.

This dying to self with Christ and rising to serve Him is an ongoing, 
never-ending process of progressive conversion.

Today in the Lucan “School of Discipleship,” 
we learn how to live from this quality of “being saved”.
Knowing that we are “being saved” by God in Christ through the power of the Spirit
at every moment, we are people of gratitude, giving thanks always to God 
for sharing his healing love with us each day.

Living with the humble attitude that we are “being saved”, 
we acknowledge our blindness and seek healing.
We recognize the hardness of our heart and seek forgiveness.
We admit the narrowness of our understanding, that there is so much more 
that Jesus has to teach us and so much more we have to learn.

Then, on fire with the love of the Lord, we go forth—
to the east and to the west and to the north and to the south—
to set the world on fire with His saving love flaming out of us.

Aflame with Him, we spark in others a desire to know Him and to love Him,
who is the Savior of the World.