Fresh Dew Media

 Wednesday of 30^th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: Make effort to enter through the narrow door (Lk 13:24)

Reading: Lk 13:22-30

The question that someone asked Jesus in today’s gospel about whether those who will inherit heaven will be many or few has never stopped being a subject of concern to many people in our time. Due to the difficulty of following all of God's commandments and other religious laws, many people have continued to ponder what God's criteria for judgement on the last day will be. Will He tamper justice with mercy, or will He let His justice triumph over mercy?

It is clear from Jesus' response that casual acquaintance with Him will not be one of the criteria for entry into heaven on the last day. To those who will tell Him, "Lord, we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets," He will respond, "I don't know you." To be saved, one must make an effort to enter through the narrow gate rather than the broad one.

The narrow gate indicates to live and die in a close relationship with God, living as Jesus wants, following all the hard choices to deny oneself of the pleasure of sin, and doing one’s duty towards God and humans, even if such duties cause immense discomfort. This gate is hardly taken by many people. The broad gate, on the other hand, is the easy road of compromising one’s faith and giving up on the demands of the Christian life due to the difficulties involved in living according to such demands and the pleasures the world of sin promises to offer. Many people love taking this gate.

One of the well-known teachings that many people who have happily chosen the broad path are spreading in our world nowadays is that one has to love Jesus the way He or She is without making effort to allow the teachings of Jesus about sanctity of life to influence him or her; that one has to love Jesus the way he or she is, even when his or her lifestyle is in stark contrast to the gospel of Jesus about sexuality. To such people, there should be no mention of sin, sanctity of life, God’s judgement, or the need to repent and get right with God. Let us run away from those who invite us to take the broad gate.

May your Wednesday be blessed, Amen

Fr Isaac Chima.