The readings of today are challenging and at the same time reassuring. While the first reading and the psalm gives us a sense of reassurance, the second reading and gospel challenges us. In the first reading, Isaiah mentions that God will not only invite the exiles back to His presence on the holy mountain (Jerusalem), but He will also welcome various other people from distant lands.
Thus the reassurance that, God’s dwelling place will be open to all who seek a relationship with the Lord. The psalm has a similar theme, in that, it is an invitation for all nations to praise God, as God welcomes all nations into His divine presence. The second reading reminds us that just as a loving parent disciplines a child using uncomfortable and painful means, in order that the child develops into a mature individual; so also God allows us His adopted children, to experience difficult times in order to discipline and help us mature in relationship with Him. In today’s gospel, Jesus is asked about who (how many) will be saved.
However, Jesus responded using the image of a narrow gate through which it is difficult to pass. Jesus tried to point out the right attitude for salvation. What is important is not knowing exactly how many people will be saved, but living with a clear and responsible attitude in order to welcome salvation from that good God. Hence undercutting the reaction of those who understood His message as an invitation to laxity. The readings of today help us to have the correct perspective on God’s plan. God welcomes everyone into his reign. He came that he might re-unite us with the Father.
But then, being welcomed into God’s reign will take work and discipline on our part. God wants us to make it, but it will take personal effort, patience, faith and hope, for us to fit in through the narrow gate. We cannot sit back (like the self-righteous) and presume we don’t have to do anything because we have already made it or do not need God’s help. Yes, the gate is narrow. But its narrowness is not meant to prevent or deny us entry into God’s reign, but to slow down the haughty who want to parade into the presence of God with the focus being on themselves.
It is not enough to have known the Messiah, have heard and seen him; one needs to also follow Him (learning to live like He did, taking up his cross and trusting the Father, as Christ did) even if it hurts. For that is how we are being chiseled and shaped to fit and pass through the narrow gate into the reign of God. My dear friends in Christ, we are called and reminded today, to set our focus right.
Not in bothering ourselves with how many would be saved (which could stem or even end at self-righteousness or despair), but in seeking and striving earnestly to be in that number, when the saints go marching in. May God bless us all.
• Rev. Fr. Boniface Aniebue, Associate Parish Priest, Catholic Church of the Transfiguration, VGC, Lekki, Lagos.
