Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
It has sometimes troubled me to hear that the gate that leads to eternal life is narrow and the way that leads to destruction is broad. On the surface, this is one of Jesus’ harsher sayings; yet perhaps it is not as harsh as it sounds at first. The first and second readings today have something uplifting to say to us Christians as we go about our daily lives and attempt to live as followers of Jesus.
One theme of the scriptures today is the abundance of God’s gifts to us and the need for us to respond to these gifts through faith. Abram is praised at several points in the Bible for having faith, while Lot is ultimately portrayed as being faithless. The promise that God makes to Abram is that his descendents will be as numerous as the dust of the earth and they will inherit all of the land as far as the eye can see (Genesis 13: 14-17). Notably absent is a similar promise of blessing to Lot. What makes the difference here between Lot and Abram? It is the faithfulness, in the case of Abram, compared with faithlessness and turning away from God in the case of Lot.
God’s promise to provide for and bless Abram’s offspring and their descendents is an example of grace. Another word for grace is blessing or gift. Elsewhere in the Bible, we see that faith is a gift, but it is a gift that must be accepted willingly by the person receiving it. Abram accepts this gift while Lot ultimately does not. There are other examples of contrasting pairs in the Bible—for instance, Isaac and Esau, and David and Saul. There are also many positive examples of those who have accepted grace with a willing and joyful heart. I am reminded particularly of Mary’s joyful acceptance of God’s plan as expressed throughout her life.
The gospel mentions the difficulty of the narrow road and contrasts it with the broad way. Yet Jesus also reminds us a little later on in the gospel of Matthew: “my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Matthew 11: 30). As Christians we can fall into the mistake of thinking that our salvation depends first and foremost on us, but we need to remember that we are saved through our life together in community with other Christians and through our action in the wider world. We did not choose God. God chose us. We are not the primary source of our own faith. Nor are we responsible for saving ourselves. Instead, our faith and our ability to live the Christian life is a result of God working through us. What we are called to do is to accept the gifts that God gives us and that enable us to love and serve God and one another.
We have an opportunity today to follow Jesus’ command to enter by the narrow gate. This means that we will accept both the blessings and the hardships of life and see them as gifts from God. In doing so, we follow in the footsteps of Abram and the other holy men and women who have gone before us in the faith.
Joel Schickel