Modern psychology gives great importance to “feeling good” and “loving one’s self” as a precondition to love others. But in today’s Gospel passage Jesus warns us that there is no easy way to be His disciples as He declares that the Kingdom of God can be “accessed”only through a “narrow gate.” Obviously, Jesus is not speaking of a material gate but of the “narrow gate” of daily faithfulness to one’s duties and the loyal observance of God’s law in all circumstances of life.
That is what makes life challenging, but that is also the only way that leads to eternal happiness in heaven. In this Eucharist, let us ask for the grace to have the moral strength to choose the “narrow gate” of self-denial, in preference to the wide gate of self-indulgence and other forms of self-gratification.
Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.
That is what makes life challenging, but that is also the only way that leads to eternal happiness in heaven. In this Eucharist, let us ask for the grace to have the moral strength to choose the “narrow gate” of self-denial, in preference to the wide gate of self-indulgence and other forms of self-gratification.
Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.
