HOMILY WEEK 30 03 – Year II
Humble Faith and Love – Keys to the Kingdom
(Eph 6:1-9; Ps 145; Lk 13:22-30)
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Strive to enter through the narrow gate. (Luke 13:24)
Today’s liturgy reminds us that faith in Jesus, love for others, and humble self-awareness are critical keys to the kingdom of God.
The Word Among Us commentary on today’s gospel muses that the people listening to Jesus must have wondered what he meant by the “narrow gate.” Was he implying that the way to salvation is so difficult that only the holiest people will be able to squeeze through?
Not at all! What he was saying is that the gate that leads to salvation is Jesus himself and his grace, which sets us free from sin.
This revelation was at the heart of Jesus’ preaching and the experience of the first Christians. It was a call to humble faith, one that does not depend on our own efforts to save ourselves – a meritocracy of sorts. For instance, when Paul met the risen Lord, he realized that only by Jesus’ grace could he, a persecutor of the followers of Jesus, ever hope to be made righteous before God. Everything else – his status, his learning and his strict adherence to Jewish law – was actually “a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).
This is such good news that we can often find it hard to grasp. It means that we don’t have to be perfect before we come to Jesus; we just have to yield to the grace of Jesus himself so that we can enter his “narrow gate” and find the way to eternal life. This humble faith is well expressed in step one of Alcoholics Anonymous: “Admitted we were powerless against an addiction and that our lives were unmanageable.” It is also physically acted out in terms of Indigenous spirituality as the only way to enter and exit a sweat lodge is by crawling on all fours, and acknowledging our need for and connectedness to others and all of creation with the expression, “Kahkiyaw ni wakomâkanak” – all my relations.
So why then, TWAU continues, does Jesus say that we must “strive” to enter the narrow gate and that “many… will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” (Luke 13:24)?
Because while only Jesus can save us, walking in his ways every day can be difficult and challenging. A first obstacle is our false pride, our stubborn tendency to think we can manage on our own, our deeply rooted attachment to wanting to merit or deserve salvation, the conviction that we don’t need any help, even God’s. It also means obeying Jesus’ commandment to love God with our whole being, to love others as we love ourselves, to love others as he has loved us, and above all, to love our enemies by forgiving them from the heart – all actions that rub against our self-will and self-sufficiency. This all requires sacrifice and self-denial. No wonder so many people choose the wider and easier road of self-will.
But we can persevere because Jesus not only welcomes us through the narrow gate; he walks with us and gives us his grace each day. We don’t have to rely only on our own strength; Jesus is there to help us with every decision we make to love, to sacrifice, and to obey.
Today, imagine Jesus welcoming us to walk with him through the narrow gate. He already knows all our struggle and failings, and he knows we can’t achieve salvation on our own. Trust that he will be our constant traveling companion on the road we have chosen and will give us all the grace and mercy we need each day to follow him into the joy of his kingdom.
Celebrating the Eucharist is one of the best ways of being humble, acknowledging our need for him, listening to his word, and above all, experiencing his love through forgiveness and healing as we commune with his body and blood.
May our celebration deepen our faith in him, empower us to love others and be more in touch with our own wounded humanity and need for him.
