Have you noticed? We
haven’t exactly been getting light fare from Luke’s Gospel these
summer Sundays. And that’s a little surprising because Luke
has long been known as the ‘scribe of the gentle Christ.’ More than
the other gospel writers, Luke shows us the warm, human,
compassionate side of Jesus. Luke is the only one of the four who
tells us about:
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the Jesus of the Bethlehem stable;
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the Jesus who was brokenhearted when he saw a poor widow on the way
to bury her only son;
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the Jesus who let a notoriously sinful woman wash his feet with her
tears;
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the
Jesus who asked his Father to forgive his executioners and who
assured the repentant thief of a place in paradise.
And there’s more: Luke, and only Luke, gives us some of our favorite
parables: the Good Samaritan, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the
Prodigal Son. Luke is
definitely “the scribe of the gentle Christ,” but the gentle Jesus
of Luke’s gospel does have a backbone. Recall the gospel readings of
the most recent Sundays. Three Sundays ago we heard him call the
smug rich man who kept building bigger barns for storing his wealth
a “fool.” Two Sundays ago he told us to sell our possessions and
give to the poor; and last Sunday he told us that he came not to
bring peace, but division. And then today we get stern words from
Jesus about striving to enter by the narrow gate.
Can this be the same
Jesus? Yes, it can. It is! The Jesus of Luke’s gospel is not
one-dimensional, nor can his teaching be reduced to a few cozy or
comforting stories. In fact, if you sit down and read through Luke’s
gospel (and I highly recommend that you do: it’s a great read!),
you’ll see that a good part of it is the story of a very demanding
journey which Jesus makes to Jerusalem. It is an uphill journey
geographically - for Jerusalem sits high on a hilltop, and it’s also
an uphill journey psychologically - for Jerusalem is the hilltop
where Jesus died. Today’s gospel, along with those of the last few
Sundays, comes from what I think of as the ‘uphill’ part of Luke’s
Gospel: the journey to Jerusalem which begins in the ninth chapter.
“Strive to enter by
the narrow gate,” Jesus tells us today. The passport for entry
will not be any names we can drop or the company we have kept (“We
ate and drank with you! You taught in our streets!”) No,
our passport will come down to one thing: did we make the journey
with Jesus to Jerusalem?
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Did we walk alongside the one who had no
place to lay his head;
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who, when he prayed to his Father, asked
only for this day’s bread, not tomorrow’s;
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who taught that whoever does not accept
the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it;
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who also taught that forgiveness was to
be offered freely, and not just seven times, but
seventy-times-seven times;
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and that much will be required of the
person to whom much has been entrusted;
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who told us that when we’re inviting
guests for dinner that we should include the poor, the crippled,
the lame and the blind;
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and that whoever does not carry the cross
cannot be his disciple.
All those, my
friends, tell the story of the journey to Jerusalem, and the
question is: are we making this journey with Jesus? If we are, we
will understand why the gate is narrow. The gate is really
only wide enough for Jesus. Or let me put it another way: the gate
is only wide enough for those who accept the call to follow Jesus.
For this Christian life we are trying so hard to live is all about
following Jesus, “putting on” Jesus, to use St. Paul’s words.
Only when we put on Jesus can we begin to fit through the narrow
gate. It’s as simple as that, and as difficult.
But what of those
who don’t know Jesus? What of those we heard about in today’s
first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, the people of “all nations
and tongues from the faraway coastlands?” What of the people the
gospel talks about from “the east and the west, the north and the
south,” who are not among the chosen people but who, Jesus says,
will nonetheless sit down to eat one day in the kingdom of God? How
do they get through if the gate is narrow? Is there a contradiction
here? It might seem so. But we must remember that, though the gate
is narrow, the embrace of God is wide – wide beyond our imagining.
God embraces all peoples, calls all peoples, and even finds a way
for them to meet Jesus because everyone who sincerely seeks the
truth and lives a life where love and service of others come first
meets Jesus – maybe not by name, but in fact.
Don’t confuse
the narrow gate, then, with religious institutions or sectarian
walls. God can break through those quite easily and regularly does.
Think of the narrow gate as that point where a person makes a
profound personal choice for truth, for God; a choice for the other,
instead of for the self. Think of the narrow gate as the
choice a person makes to love unselfishly and without conditions.
Anyone who loves like that meets Jesus, who is the “narrow gate”
into the wideness of God’s mercy. “Strive, then, to enter by
the narrow gate.” And, my friends, what better place to start than
right here at the table of the Eucharist!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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