Sister Kate’s “Gospel Question of the Week” Luke 13: 22-30…Weekend of 8/20-21/16 …The Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time…

The Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time…In this weekend’s passage from the Holy Gospel, Jesus is asked, “Lord, who will be saved?” I’m sure that behind this question was another which asked, “Will I be in the group?” I suppose that we’d all like a guarantee that, when the Lord comes for us, He’s going to have a smile on His face and say, “I’ve been waiting for you. Come with me into everlasting peace and happiness.” Now, wouldn’t that be nice! The best guarantee we can muster up for this for ourselves is a clear conscience and a life dedicated to living the “Good News” of Jesus. So many times we hear in the Gospel that we need to be ready…that we can’t wait until it is too late to turn our lives toward God! The Gospel for this weekend underlines this message again when it says that “after the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then there will be those standing outside, knocking, and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us’” Now that’s a sad picture! Those left outside the locked door are any of us who persist at putting off getting our heart together for Jesus, thinking that we have enough time ahead to do that. The parable of the locked door warns us that the time is short. None of us is promised tomorrow. Read the obits…not everyone dying is in their 80’s. Each day may see opportunities missed. We need to remember the proverb, “Opportunity will not knock twice at your door.” We would do well to examine our day every night before going to sleep, asking the following questions: "How conscious was I today of God's numerous gifts? How well did I respond to the opportunities to bear witness and serve in Jesus' name: to forgive, feed, clothe, and love those who entered my life? How much did I strive to-day to enter through the narrow gate of sacrificial love?'" The "narrow road" or "narrow gate" spoken of in today’s Holy Gospel concerns our everyday living—our relationships with God and with each other. It involves our doing good deeds for the right reasons. It speaks of our pursuing the kingdom and God’s justice instead of fame and fortune for ourselves. It involves our repentance, humility, righteousness, truth and true discipleship. Jesus issued a series of sayings and parables in the Holy Gospel that emphasized the difficulty involved in entering God’s kingdom, and he stressed the need for constant fidelity and vigilance throughout our lives. Jesus also insisted that salvation was an urgent matter -- the "narrow gate" was open now but would not remain so indefinitely. Then he added two conditions: eternal salvation will be the result of a struggle (He says, "keep on striving to enter through the narrow gate.” It would be like the effort one would make in swimming against the current in a river. We must ever be going forward or else we will go backward…AND, secondly - We must enter through the "narrow gate" of sacrificial and selfless service (in other words, the journey will not be a “walk in the park!”). Someone once said to Padarewski, the great pianist, "Sir, you are a genius." He replied, "Madam, before I was a genius I was a drudge." He continued: “If I missed practice one day, I noticed it; if I missed practice two days, the critics noticed it; if I missed three days, my family noticed it; if I missed four days, my audience noticed it. It is reported that after one of Fritz Kreisler's concerts a young woman said to him, "I would give my life to be able to play like that." He replied, "That's what I gave.” The door is narrow. Why should we think we can "drift" into the Kingdom of God? The Christian life is a constant striving to do the will of God as Jesus revealed it. We need to strive because there are forces of evil within us and around us, trying to pull us down. GOSPEL QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Are you ready and willing to access the narrow gate of salvation ?