Beloved in Christ,
"Lord, will only a few people be saved?" Someone asked Jesus as he made his way to Jerusalem. Jesus responded with a complex and indirect answer: "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough" (Lk 13: 23). If you were to see Jesus walking through Elizabethtown today on his way to the Capitol in Harrisburg, what question would you ask him? "Why is there evil in the world? "Will there be a medical cure for cancer?" Or perhaps you will ask him a mundane sports question like, "Will the Dallas Cowboys ever make it to the Super Bowl again in my lifetime?" These are inconsequential questions. The most pertinent question of all those mentioned is the very first one because it addresses the quest to know what will follow after our soul departs our body someday. The question is related to that asked Jesus by the rich young man in the Gospel reading for last Monday: "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" (Mat 19:16). The question can be distilled and rephrased this way: "What path must I follow to be saved or make it into heaven?"
Jesus gives us an answer that requires us to review how we perceive and live our Christian faith. Jesus takes our attention away from the trivial question of how many will be saved to how I will be saved. This question is a personal one: How will I make heaven? The immediate reality from Jesus' answer is that the path to salvation or heaven is not an easy one. "Strive to enter through the narrow gate." The teachings on true discipleship that we have received in the past weeks have now reached a crescendo: the way to salvation is arduous. It is narrow, which means it involves struggles and agony. There is no easy way. It is a path of grace, but not a cheap one, a costly one. Being a Christian, a nominal one, is not enough. God requires us to cooperate or complement his grace with our efforts and sacrifices. God expects a Christian life lived with passion and integrity- a life on fire!
What does this entail? Or what does it not entail? It is not enough that we are notional Christians who know a lot and study a lot about Jesus and the faith. Salvation is walking the way of the Cross. We must endure the crucible. To live for Christ and enter into eternal life entails total commitment to the way of the cross, a demanding life of discipleship. Making sure I attend mass on Sunday and days of obligation, praying the rosary daily, giving a tenth of my income to church and charity alone may not cut it. In addition, a deep love and commitment to Jesus and his teachings, a challenging path to follow, is needed. As Jesus said to us last week, he wants to set the world, including our hearts, on fire; he wants a radical expression of the faith, not a nominal or half-hearted approach. The way to salvation or eternal life with God is rugged and demands our willingness to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. We must turn to Jesus for grace. We must constantly examine our lives, repent and live a life united to Christ Crucified. It is the only proper way to salvation or eternal life.
Many Christians have preceded us in this narrow way. We call them saints, the cloud of witnesses the writer of the letter to the Hebrews 12 spoke about last week. We celebrate this week three of many such interesting and instructive saints to inspire us. Monica and Augustine are saints who remind us of the power of persistent prayers and hope for the most sinful or unworthy Christian. The passion of John the Baptist will also be celebrated this week, and it illustrates the narrow gate we must approach and struggle to pass through to attain salvation.
Our children go back to school this week. Please let us remember them in our prayers. I will be blessing all students and their teachers at all masses, sending them forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Christ as they go about the task of learning and teaching, respectively.
In Christ, Fr. Alayode, OP
"Lord, will only a few people be saved?" Someone asked Jesus as he made his way to Jerusalem. Jesus responded with a complex and indirect answer: "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough" (Lk 13: 23). If you were to see Jesus walking through Elizabethtown today on his way to the Capitol in Harrisburg, what question would you ask him? "Why is there evil in the world? "Will there be a medical cure for cancer?" Or perhaps you will ask him a mundane sports question like, "Will the Dallas Cowboys ever make it to the Super Bowl again in my lifetime?" These are inconsequential questions. The most pertinent question of all those mentioned is the very first one because it addresses the quest to know what will follow after our soul departs our body someday. The question is related to that asked Jesus by the rich young man in the Gospel reading for last Monday: "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" (Mat 19:16). The question can be distilled and rephrased this way: "What path must I follow to be saved or make it into heaven?"
Jesus gives us an answer that requires us to review how we perceive and live our Christian faith. Jesus takes our attention away from the trivial question of how many will be saved to how I will be saved. This question is a personal one: How will I make heaven? The immediate reality from Jesus' answer is that the path to salvation or heaven is not an easy one. "Strive to enter through the narrow gate." The teachings on true discipleship that we have received in the past weeks have now reached a crescendo: the way to salvation is arduous. It is narrow, which means it involves struggles and agony. There is no easy way. It is a path of grace, but not a cheap one, a costly one. Being a Christian, a nominal one, is not enough. God requires us to cooperate or complement his grace with our efforts and sacrifices. God expects a Christian life lived with passion and integrity- a life on fire!
What does this entail? Or what does it not entail? It is not enough that we are notional Christians who know a lot and study a lot about Jesus and the faith. Salvation is walking the way of the Cross. We must endure the crucible. To live for Christ and enter into eternal life entails total commitment to the way of the cross, a demanding life of discipleship. Making sure I attend mass on Sunday and days of obligation, praying the rosary daily, giving a tenth of my income to church and charity alone may not cut it. In addition, a deep love and commitment to Jesus and his teachings, a challenging path to follow, is needed. As Jesus said to us last week, he wants to set the world, including our hearts, on fire; he wants a radical expression of the faith, not a nominal or half-hearted approach. The way to salvation or eternal life with God is rugged and demands our willingness to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. We must turn to Jesus for grace. We must constantly examine our lives, repent and live a life united to Christ Crucified. It is the only proper way to salvation or eternal life.
Many Christians have preceded us in this narrow way. We call them saints, the cloud of witnesses the writer of the letter to the Hebrews 12 spoke about last week. We celebrate this week three of many such interesting and instructive saints to inspire us. Monica and Augustine are saints who remind us of the power of persistent prayers and hope for the most sinful or unworthy Christian. The passion of John the Baptist will also be celebrated this week, and it illustrates the narrow gate we must approach and struggle to pass through to attain salvation.
Our children go back to school this week. Please let us remember them in our prayers. I will be blessing all students and their teachers at all masses, sending them forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Christ as they go about the task of learning and teaching, respectively.
In Christ, Fr. Alayode, OP
RSS Feed