Readings:
Ephesians 6:1-9
Luke 13:22-30
Reflection:
Jesus had a way of turning questions around – changing them from theoretical questions to personal ones. “Who is my neighbour?” someone asked him; and he turned it into another question, “Who should I be neighbour to?” (Story of Good Samaritan) Likewise in today’s reading he changed the question from “Will the saved be few?” to “Will the saved, be you?”
Will many be saved? Will everyone be saved? Christians haven’t always been wise in the way we approached these questions. Jesus responded to the question by saying what we should do if we want to be saved. He said it is a narrow door.
Anything that comes cheap, or for nothing, appears worthless. George Bernard Shaw said a cynic was a person who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. We easily confuse price and value, and so we think that what has no price has no value either. But we know that anything of real value requires everything of us. Jesus says claiming familiarity with Jesus: we ate and drank with you; you taught in our towns and streets; means little, for it is the age-old use of religion as an identity marker — sort of like belonging to the right club. It is all about entering through the narrow gate on a day today basis, whatever it means, or takes.
Entering through the narrow gate is once again faithing through the thick and thin of understanding a God that is unfolding for us today amid everything that is happening around us and in us.
Giltus Mathias CP is a member of the St.Brigid’s Community Marrickville.