21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 25-25, 2007
Once there was a rich man who always had this question fixed in his mind: "Will I go to heaven or to hell?" This became so much of an obsession with him that he decided to approach his pastor. "Father, will you please ask God whether I am going to heaven or to hell?" "Well, my son, how can I possibly know? I do not have a direct line with heaven." "Come on, Father! Pray hard. Do not worry; I will compensate you well for all your efforts. I will pay off all the debts of the Church..." With that kind of an offer, the pastor could not refuse. "Come and see me in three days time," he reassured him. And sure enough, three days later, the rich man was knocking at the door of the preacher. "Well, Father, any news from God?" "Yes, my son! I have good news and bad news." "Give me the good news first." "The good news is that you are going to heaven!" "Great! Wonderful!" exclaimed the rich man in jubilation. "And what’s the bad news?" "Well, the bad news is that you are going to heaven today!”
Who can be saved?
In the Gospel someone asked Jesus “Who can be saved?” Jesus simply answered “strive hard because the heaven has a narrow gate." In simple words I supposed Jesus wants to say is that a person must be fit, must workout, and lose some weight so that she or he may enter the gate of heaven. We have to trim our waistline to enter the narrow gate. We are not talking here our physical sizes but to enter heaven we need to burn our “spiritual fats” --- our attachments to pleasure, worldliness, and selfishness. The second reading tells us more how can we trim our “spiritual waistlines” to enter the narrow gates, through discipline, suffering and sacrifices
Strive to enter by the narrow gate. Jesus uses the image of a narrow gate to describe the gate of heaven. It has been made small so that only the little ones will fit through it;Remember Jesus says you cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless you become like little children. Little children will find it easy to enter the narrow gate not because there are little physically but because they don't have "spiritual fats".
Look little children have especially qualities that we adults don’t have: they simple, they are not image conscious. They cry, poo and pee in public they don’t care what people say. They are free to express openly what they feel, and feel deeply what they are. They don’t care whether they are male or female, rich or poor, Christian or Muslim.
Children are not afraid to get hurt for being known for who they are. That is why they are so loving and lovable to eyes of God. More importantly little children unlike us are without world attachments. Children are totally dependent on their mum and dad. The world is perfect around them as long as mum and dad are present.
There will be full of surprises in heaven. The VIP’s and big shots on earth will not necessarily be VIPs and Bigshots in Heaven. To enter heaven, what will matter is not your social status on earth, or your bank account, or your looks, or your academic degrees. What will matter then will be the kind of person we are: are we like children? Are we a selfish or a loving person?
Strive to enter by the narrow gate. We too believe that we cannot “earn” our way into heaven by good works, but we also believe that we must allow God to work in our lives through His grace, a grace that is reflected in our actions. The road of the life of this world is wide, many follow it because it is like a river of desires and pleasures, it drags them into spiritual danger and it is a definite way to perdition. The road to heaven is narrow and difficult to follow, not everyone can find it easily because it demands following my gospel. The gate to gate in not so popular because tt is very easy to stray from it because of the distractions of the world.
The good thing for being a Catholic as Bishop Christopher Prowse said yesterday at Confirmation Mass is that when we fail or when we sin, we are always welcome to start a new life, we can always start afresh with Jesus and through Jesus.
We want to start afresh new now. Let us begin to trim our spiritual waistline to enter by the narrow gates.
Jesus wants us all to be in heaven. Jesus came to save us all, and we are all important to him no matter what is our country, race, culture or religion. The means of salvation is all available in the Catholic Church. We have the sacraments as means for us start our new life and thus enter the narrow gate: Eucharist, Reconcilliation…
Let us strive hard to be more closer to Jesus, only Jesus and always Jesus. We will do our best for Jesus.
Let us conclude with this a short prayer of self-examination:
“I need you Jesus Christ. Grant me forgiveness for my sins. Make me a new person. I need your Holy Spirit to direct me, to strengthen me, so that I can walk in the narrow way and choose the narrow gate. I need you to change me from a self-centered, self-sufficient person into your wise servant.”
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*Our little models for today are Nicola, Joshua and Jordan :)
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