The readings for the 21st Sunday in ordinary time invite us to reflect on the nature of God’s kingdom and our call to be part of it. In the first reading from Isaiah, we hear a powerful message of inclusivity: God will gather people from all nations and bring them to His holy mountain. This vision underscores that God’s grace knows no boundaries, it is extended to all humanity. As disciples of Christ, we are reminded that welcoming and embracing diversity is at the heart of our faith. Today’s Psalm rejoices in the universal call, urging us to praise the Lord for his steadfast love and faithfulness. It is a call to action for us to share this love with others, especially those who may feel marginalized or distant from God. In the second reading from Hebrews, we are reminded that the path to becoming part of God’s kingdom is not always easy, Discipline, as mentioned in this passage, is a crucial aspect of our spiritual journey. God’s discipline invites us to grow, to learn and to find strength in our trials. It teaches us that love and care can sometimes be tough, leading us back to a place of growth and healing. The Gospel of Luke challenges us to reflect on our commitment to following Jesus. When asked about the number of those who will be saved, He responds with a call to strive to enter through the narrow gate.
The Gospel is taken from Luke chapter 13 and verses 22-30, the Gospel passage begins with a question from someone to Jesus, as Jesus and his companions were passing through villages and towns and walking towards Jerusalem, the rest of the passage is an answer to that particular question. Both the question as well as the answer is interesting, it is important and profound. The question was: Lord will only a few people be saved? At the time of Jesus Jews believed that only they can and they will enter into the kingdom of God. Another school of thought said that not all the Jews will be saved even among them only few will be saved. Thus, the question of this person can be explained as: lord will I be saved or not. This person addresses Jesus as Lord which means he knows about Jesus and he has accepted Jesus as Lord. He was curious about his reward for his faith, but Jesus did not give an answer to this question because the focus of his question was the future, what will happen to me in the future, Jesus’ answer of Jesus was to focus on the present. The answer of Jesus redirects his attention to live his faith. Many had great faith in the history of the church but only those who lived their faith truly or were elevated as saints. There are many things in this world dear friends distracting us from living our faith truly. So, the first lesson that we learned from this gospel passage is that we are invited to focus on the present not on the future reward.
The second lesson is that we are invited to live our faith here and now in our day-to-day life. The third lesson is Jesus is telling us to strive to enter through the narrow gate. The image of the narrow gate is very interesting and enriching, almost all ancient cities had walls around the city to protect themselves from enemies, those walls had tiny and narrow gates, people have to get down from their horses or donkeys, they have to remove their armors and at times, people have to let go of their excess baggage to enter through these narrow gates, also people have to bend down and twist their shoulders and body to enter into this narrow gate. So, people have to reorient themselves to enter through narrow gates. Thus, this image teaches a great lesson it challenges us to get down from our pride and arrogance, it challenges us to remove the armors of anger and vengeance, it challenges us to let go of our unhealthy spiritual, mental and emotional excess baggage, it challenges us to be humble and simple so that we can enter through the narrow gate. This is not easy that is why Jesus is using the word strive, strive to enter through the narrow gate. The root word for strive in Greek meaning is try hard and endeavor, so we are called to try hard to enter through the narrow gate. Let us not forget that in the Gospel of John chapter 10 and verse 9 Jesus declares I am the door, I am the Gate, whoever enters through me will be saved, yes, the liturgy of the word of today calls each one of us to reorient ourselves and become Jesus like.