The Narrow Gate

In today's Gospel Luke 13: 22-30, Jesus speaks about those who will gather around the banquet table in His kingdom, those who strove, here on earth, "to enter [eternal life]  through the narrow gate." Jesus reminds us that many will not enter that narrow gate because they will not be strong enough to do so!  Strength comes from the Lord, the creator and redeemer of all! Strength comes to those who recognize Jesus as their Savior, as the one who alone can take them through that "narrow gate".

The narrow gate is  the gate through which Jesus journeyed while here on earth--obedient to a Higher Power.  Obeying the Father's will led to Jesus' death by people who were jealous of Him and who were concerned that others were listening to His teachings and worried that so many were following His way of humility, honesty, righteousness, justice and love for all persons and especially for sinners, the oppressed, the poor, and the outcasts of His culture!

Choosing the "narrow gate" of holiness, as Jesus showed us, will lead to conflict with those who choose the broader gate.  "Everyone is doing it," is the reason so many choose to follow the crowd through the broader gate. It's easier!  No sweat! No sacrifice!  "You'll be like God," Satan told Eve and Adam in the Garden!  How many people act as though they are a God, the Higher Power others are to emulate! As with Adam and Eve in the Garden, many fall for Satan's lies and reject the "narrow way."

What choices are you and I making?

Preparing for Our Savior's Coming

As we are enter the second week of Advent, we continue readings from the book of Isaiah.  Today, Monday, the 11th f Dec., Isaiah again brings us a message of hope:  The desert and the parched land will exalt; the steppe will rejoice and bloom....The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carol and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God."  The prophet  asks us to "strengthen the hands that are feeble make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he does with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you."

May our hearts rejoice at the coming of our God, a God as tender and loving as an infant, a God who has the power to melt those parts of us frozen by hatred, greed, or deceitfulness; a God who has the power to turn sin into holiness, a God who is able to transform that within us that which is  enslaved to God substitutes: power, pleasure, and control.  God "comes to save" us from all that causes division and from all that prevents us from loving freely and generously, from all that creates indifference among us.

Let us prepare for the coming of our Savior by taking time to call upon the Lord on a daily basis, reflecting on the Word of God in the Scriptures or in a favorites book that lifts our souls to the Lord in prayerful reflection on the meaning of Advent.

God Comes with Divine Recompense as Savior

In today's first reading, Is. 35:; 1-6, 10,  we read that "[t]he desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom....[T]hey will see the glory of the Lord, they will see the splendor of the our God." "Feeble hands" will be strengthened." "Weak knees" will be made firm. Those strong according to human standards, whose faith, for instance, lies, not in the Lord, but in being or becoming billionaires will crumble in the dust.  Drug dealers and users whose faith rests in deals made and drugs used will be brought low. Human traffickers and pimps whose delight is in the number of girls/women they "own" will be humbled! Criminals who boasts of the many crimes they have committed or plan to commit shall crash in defeat eventually.

Yes, Satan will eventually lose all power over humankind. "Here is your God," Isaiah tells us,  "he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you."  When the Lord comes and is accepted as Savior, as Messiah, in any one's life, that person's "eyes...will be opened, [their] deaf ears "be cleared"; "then the lame will leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing."

When the Lord returns,  those who have repented of their wrongdoing, those who recognize their sinful ways and fall on their knees before the one true God in repentance will have their blindness and deafness removed--no longer will they be worshipping idols, false gods or god-substitutes.  Yes, when the Lord comes, "those whom   the Lord has ransomed," Isaiah tells us, "will return and enter Zion singing crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee."

May you and I be among the throng of people following the Lord on that last day of our lives!

Salvation from a Merciful God

In today’s responsorial psalm, Ps. 37, we pray that “the salvation of the just comes from the Lord.” St. Paul, in today’s first reading, Titus 2: 1-8, 11-14, tells us why this is so.  He says:   “For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.”

You and I have had nothing to do with this. Salvation is a gift freely given.  It is ours to reject or accept. God eagerly awaits the moment when He will open the gates of heaven to all who accepted deliverance “from all lawlessness.”   God eagerly awaits the moment when He will swing open the doors of heaven to rescue us from Satan’s determination to devour us in disobedience.  For those of us who humbly repent and recognize our total dependency upon grace, our “cleansing” is secured by the One who became sin for us. O, how great and loving and caring and merciful is our God! 

 Everything about our being “eager to do what is good” is a gift from God, for “the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope” of our eternal  salvation .

I accept this gift from God and want to live it humbly, knowing that, apart from God, I can do nothing that is good. And when I experience my sinfulness, I pray for the gift of repentance.

What about you?

Jesus: a Just, Loving, Merciful King

In today’s responsorial psalm,  Psalm 2, the Lord says to us: “I myself have set up my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” To Jesus, God says,  in this same psalm: “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you…I will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.” And to us, the God says: “Serve the Lord with fear (reverence) and rejoice before him…”.

In the liturgy’s first reading, Acts 13: 26-33, Paul addresses the people in the synagogue in Pisidia Antioch, confronting them with the truth:  Your “leaders failed to recognize [Jesus], and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read sabbath after sabbath. For even though they found no grounds for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him put to death…But God raised him from the dead…We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our [ancestors[ he has brought to fulfillment…by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.”

The King whom  God has given us is like no other king, like no other leader. Jesus is just. Jesus is merciful. Jesus is forgiving. Jesus saves us from the  corruption of the grave and that of sin;  yes, from eternal damnation. All the kingdoms/nations of the world belong to Jesus. He will do for each kingdom, each nation, each municipality,  in this world,  what no earthly king/leader/governor/prime minister can do: save it from that which could destroy it. And He does so for each of us who believe in Him.  Truly, let us “serve the Lord with fear (reverence) and rejoice before him” (Psalm 2).

Salvation: Believing in Christ Jesus

In today’s first reading, Acts 16: 22-34, we read about Paul and Silas being arrested, beaten with rods, and chained to the prison floor.  God intervenes. The prison doors are blown open by an earthquake and the chains that securely restricted Paul and Silas’ movements are shattered, pulled right out of the cemented floor.  Frightened of the punishment that would be inflicted upon them, the jailers decide to kill themselves. Paul and Silas stop them. Falling down before them, the jailors ask:  “What must we do to be saved?” Paul and  Silas respond:  “Believe in the Lord Jesus.”

Each of us, from time to time, find ourselves chained, that is unfree to act justly, to love tenderly, to walk humbly with his/her God (Compare Micah 6:8).  Sometimes, we engage in actions which we would not otherwise do or refrain from actions which we would, when free, do. In other words,  at times  we are no different from the jailers  who beat Silas and Paul with rods and chained their feet to the prison floor.  Whom, I ask, have I beaten, not with rods, but with words? Whom, I ask, have I put in chains by my efforts to control them, by  denying them their rights to be respected, loved, and honored when I did not have the courage or, for some reason, did not feel free to speak up for them when others were treating them harshly or speaking unkindly about them or about to impose their will upon them unjustly?

“What, Lord, must we do to be saved in those situations?”  The answer is the same that Paul and Silas gave to the jailors. We need to believe in the Lord Jesus and His power to set us free. If we do believe in Jesus, then, we need to bring our situation to the Lord. Yes, we need to describe what is going on within and around us that is depriving others and us of our freedom to act in accord with God’s holy will. God’s will is our peace, our happiness, our wholeness, our holiness, our becoming one with Him and with one another in love.  When we invite Jesus into our reality, then, and only then, as in the case with Silas and Paul, will we be set free.