TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

[cappie]

 There was a time, not that long ago, when many Catholics tended to feel very superior about their faith and their interpretation of the teaching that “outside the Church there is no salvation.” The old joke suggested that Catholics had to be confined to a particular corner of heaven because they believed they were the only ones there! 

A similar mentality existed among God’s Chosen People in the Old Testament but note how the Prophet Isaiah in todays’ first reading warns them not to be presumptuous. The Lord would reach out to everyone: “I am coming to gather the nations of every language.” Jesus squarely confronts the same issue, warning those who are tempted to compromise their integrity by turning to evil, thereby failing to respond to his invitation to love and serve his Father. He reminds them that it is no use appealing to claim allegiance because he had once dined with them and he had taught in their streets. Likewise, it is not enough for us to claim that we are Christians and then live contrary to the example Jesus has set before us.

 The people of Israel heard God’s voice in a variety of ways. There was the fire of the burning bush, the voice in a storm, and a voice so thunderous on Sinai that they asked God to talk to them through Moses.

 Jesus’ voice is different, as the author of Hebrews points out. It is a human voice, complete with a human face and body, it is a voice that knows intimately the ways of men, women, and children. The writer calls Jesus “the mediator of a new covenant.” But he too urges his listeners to “See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven.”

The warning in the gospel is ominously clear. In this reading from Luke, Jesus tells us four very important things about the kingdom.

The door is narrow.

There will come a time when the door will shut, so time is limited.

There will be no favouritism.

The truths, which govern us now, do not govern the kingdom.

This last point had to be particularly painful for Jesus’ audience. He told them that Abraham, Jacob, and all the prophets, the most revered men of their history, would sit down and eat with strangers, gentiles even. That notion was horrifying enough but he went on to say that they, good Jews, would be thrown out. He upset the social order on which they depended.

Where is the Jesus who, only two weeks ago, was telling us, “Do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom?” Who is this one who now says, “for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able?”

This new teaching is not so much about the nature of the kingdom as it is about us. We are creatures of free choice. It may be the Father’s good pleasure to offer us the kingdom, but whether we enter or not is our choice. We are responsible for ourselves.

This does not mean we must search for the invitation to enter that narrow door. Every moment of every day, the door stands open. With every breath we take, Jesus invites us to enter. But, as surely as it is the father’s good pleasure to offer us the kingdom, it is equally certain that it is his grief to watch us brush it aside or even reject it.

Is it not possible that the kingdom of which we speak is not a faraway destination but a present possibility? Can it be, not a place, but a decision, a state of being which rests in our relationship with Jesus Christ in our present circumstance?

If this is true, life in the kingdom lies in our choices,  In the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is the door. Our choices are the keys.