The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to check on our acceptance of the Will of God to gather people from all nations into our community.
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| Many nations along our path |
The passage from the Prophet Isaiah describes the desire of God to gather the nations.
* [66:18–21] God summons the neighboring nations to Zion and from among them will send some to far distant lands to proclaim the divine glory. All your kin: Jews in exile. The “gathering of the people and the nations” is an eschatological motif common in the prophetic tradition; cf. 56:8.1
Psalm 117 calls on the nations to acknowledge God’s supremacy.
* [Psalm 117] This shortest of hymns calls on the nations to acknowledge God’s supremacy. The supremacy of Israel’s God has been demonstrated to them by the people’s secure existence, which is owed entirely to God’s gracious fidelity.2
The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews identifies God as our Father and nudges us to accept His affectionate correction. (corrected USCCB link http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/hebrews/12:5 )
* [12:1–13] Christian life is to be inspired not only by the Old Testament men and women of faith (Heb 12:1) but above all by Jesus. As the architect of Christian faith, he had himself to endure the cross before receiving the glory of his triumph (Heb 12:2). Reflection on his sufferings should give his followers courage to continue the struggle, if necessary even to the shedding of blood (Heb 12:3–4). Christians should regard their own sufferings as the affectionate correction of the Lord, who loves them as a father loves his children.3
In the Gospel, Luke presents the Narrow Door where we need to choose a path toward salvation or rejection.
* [13:22–30] These sayings of Jesus follow in Luke upon the parables of the kingdom (Lk 13:18–21) and stress that great effort is required for entrance into the kingdom (Lk 13:24) and that there is an urgency to accept the present opportunity to enter because the narrow door will not remain open indefinitely (Lk 13:25). Lying behind the sayings is the rejection of Jesus and his message by his Jewish contemporaries (Lk 13:26) whose places at table in the kingdom will be taken by Gentiles from the four corners of the world (Lk 13:29). Those called last (the Gentiles) will precede those to whom the invitation to enter was first extended (the Jews). See also Lk 14:15–24.4
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| A narrow gate |
Mike Cherney comments that a loving God who is eager to expand the fold may not have been the easiest message which a prophet might bring.
I think that many of us enjoy being special. I am ashamed to say that I have caught myself feeling better because I have things that others do not. Opening up the God’s kingdom to outsiders may not have been something that was welcome in the first century and my sense is that it is not universally welcome now. I often wonder how I would have reacted as a Jew during Jesus’ lifetime. Religious leaders had a certain amount of autonomy under the Roman prefect. I can see both Jesus and Paul running up against the institutional authorities. Their message called for change and reform. I can imagine how Jesus and Paul were characterized. I think that I can safely assume that varying narratives are not unique to today’s point in time. My prayer today is for openness and wise discernment.5
Don Schwager quotes “To enter the narrow door,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"'Wide is the door, and broad the way that brings down many to destruction.' What are we to understand by its broadness? ...A stubborn mind will not bow to the yoke of the law [the commandments of God]. This life is cursed and relaxed in all carelessness. Thrusting from it the divine law and completely unmindful of the sacred commandments, wealth, vices, scorn, pride and the empty imagination of earthly pride spring from it. Those who would enter in by the narrow door must withdraw from all these things, be with Christ and keep the festival with him." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 99)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 13:22-30 declares the Lord is not stingy when it comes to drawing people to himself. In fact, the more the merrier! The key is entry through the narrow gate. That’s the action of faith that unites us.
Now, just as you are a part of the people of God, so are the people in your community, everyone who serves side-by-side with you at your parish. But so are people who speak a different language or whose culture or economic status is very unlike your own. So are people in prison cells and in homeless shelters. So is the annoying neighbor down the street whose faith is known to God alone. In God’s eyes, everyone is equally deserving of his love. Because God wants everyone in his kingdom. So let’s make space next to ourselves at the Lord’s banquet table.7
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the rare apocalyptic section in Isaiah 66. The Narrow Gate: Easy or Difficult? Yes! Friar Jude reminds us that Love is often found in the suffering when we are out of sync and trust in God becomes a choice and not a feeling.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that today, every academic, professional discipline—psychology, anthropology, history, the various sciences, social studies, art, and business—recognizes change, development, and some kind of evolving phenomenon. But in its search for the Real Absolute, much of Christian theology made one fatal mistake: It imagined that any notion of God had to be unchanging, an “unmoved mover,” as Aristotelian philosophy called it. He offers a clear and concise description of our changing worldview from Australian theologian Denis Edwards.
Our theological tradition has been shaped within the worldview of a static universe. The great theological synthesis of St. Thomas Aquinas [1224–1274], for example, was formed within a culture which took for granted that the world was fixed and static, … By contrast, we are told today that the universe began with a cosmic explosion called the Big Bang, that we live in an expanding universe, with galaxies rushing away from us at an enormous rate, that the Earth is a relatively small planet revolving around the Sun, that it is hurtling through space as part of a Solar system which is situated toward the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, that we human beings are the product of an evolutionary movement on the Earth, and that we are intimately linked with the health of the delicately balanced life systems on our planet.
The shift between these two mindsets is enormous. It needs to be stressed that most of our tradition has been shaped by the first of these, and even contemporary theology has seldom dealt explicitly with the change to a new mindset. . . . We have no choice but to face up to the ecological crisis which confronts us. Religious thinkers . . . are searching for a new synthesis of science and faith, a new cosmology, and a “new story.” [1]8
Graeme Benjamin of Global News reports that Peace by Chocolate founder, Tareq Hadhad says that an anti-immigration billboard in Halifax is ‘Very hurtful to see,’
Hadhad abandoned his studies to become a physician and fled to Lebanon with several family members after a 2012 bombing destroyed his father’s chocolate factory in Syria. The family found a home in Antigonish, N.S., in early 2016, as Canada accepted a wave of more than 25,000 Syrians… Hadhad was hurt and disappointment to see the billboard installed in Halifax, a place he says is largely accepting of immigrants. For that reason, Hadhad doesn’t feel the message will resonate with voters come October.
“Eighty-four per cent of Nova Scotians are pro-immigration,” Hadhad said. “I think this is the wrong place for a sign like this.”
“It was very hurtful to see. I hope that this will not resonate with anyone in the city.”9
The path of our journey through the narrow gate, ironically, calls us to widen our acceptance and welcome of people of all cultures and economic status into our lives and to trust in the development by the Spirit of a mindset that addresses demographic and ecological change and the synthesis of science and faith that will be in accord with the will of the Father.
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