NB. Mass with the seminary community tomorrow morning, so here's a Vintage Fr. Philip Homily from 2007. The podcast link still works, so give a listen and leave me some feedback!
21st Sunday OT: Isa 66.18-21; Heb 12.5-7, 11-13; Luke 13.22-30
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Paul Hospital, Dallas, TX
That narrow gate ain’t getting any wider, and the wider I get the more I worry! There are times when I make a run for the gate, hoping to hit it hard enough to squeeze most of me through. You
know, just hope that momentum pushes me on through. And there are other
times that I think I might be able to slowly twist and turn, wiggle and
jiggle in the right angles and pop on through. It’s a matter of finesse and know-how. And
there are still other times that I just fall on the ground in front of
the gate, kicking my feet and squalling like a baby needing his diaper
changed! Let me through! Let me through! But fits and tempers don’t widen the gate either. Here’s my theory about that Narrow Gate: the gate is inversely proportionate to the size of the Pride trying to get through. The bigger the Pride, the narrower the gate. Humility—that
lived-knowing that we are totally dependent on God for everything—my
humility, your humility widens the gate and our Lord will say to us on
the other side, “Hey! I know y’all! Come, recline at my table.” Momentum
will not propel you through. Spiritual fervor, religious athleticism
won’t help either. Nor will finesse or knowledge or good family
connections wave you through ahead of the line. Infantile belly-aching about fairness and justice won’t reward you eternal life. Nor will whining about what you think you are entitled to / help you force your way through.
Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Notice, please, that Jesus doesn’t answer the question directly. Instead he instructs, then warns, then prophesies. First,
the instruction: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate…” Then the
warning: “…many, I tell you, will attempt to enter [the narrow gate]...”
And finally the prophecy: “...but [they] will not be strong enough [to enter].” Unlike
most of what we hear preached in our Catholic parishes these days and
taught in our Catholic seminaries, this teaching is unambiguously
exclusive, clearly it is not the all-inclusive,
gates-wide-open-garden-banquet that we’ve been taught to believe
represents salvation through Christ. Jesus couldn’t be more straightforward, more plain spoken: after the master of the house has locked the door, those standing outside will knock and plead, “Lord, open the door for us.” And the master will say, “I do not know where you are from.” And those outside will remind him that they ate and drank with him, listening to his teachings. The master will respond, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!” Much
wailing and gnashing of teeth follows. Now, is this the nonjudgmental,
all-inclusive, diversity and difference welcoming Jesus we’ve come to
know and ignore? I don’t think so.
Our Lord is not a way to God among various but equally valid ways to God. Our Lord is not a truth among numerous but perfectly legitimate truths. Our Lord is not a life among different but equivalently honorable lives. Jesus says, “I am THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life, and no one come to the Father, except through me. Christ
is the Narrow Gate of salvation; he is the door to perfect freedom,
perfect joy, perfect life, and that door opens for anyone, anyone at
all—no one is excluded by Christ from the invitation to eternal life
through Christ Jesus. Every human person,
everyone, all of us are invited to knock on the gate in humility, to
show him that we have been of service to the least of God’s children,
and that we have put ourselves last in the kingdom by training our
hearts and minds, by teaching our hands and feet through the daily
exercise of righteousness—our workout routine in God’s Gym!
You might be confused now. Didn’t I say earlier that the teaching in this gospel is unambiguously exclusive? And didn’t I just say that Christ invitation to the gate and the party beyond it is all—inclusive! No one is left out. Exactly right. Christ
leaves no one out of his invitation to follow him. No one. Jesus says,
“And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and
the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” No
race, no sex, no color, no religious creed, no nationality, no sexual
proclivity, no nothing is excluded from the call to holiness in Christ
Jesus. Aight. So, who are those people on the condemned side of the locked door? Who are the evildoers that the master is cussing at? The ones who couldn’t squeeze through the narrow gate? Those are the ones who hear the call but do not answer it. The ones who come to the gate swollen with pride, envy, greed, self-righteousness. The ones who work hard to get themselves through the gate but never love. The
ones who think that their mama and daddy’s money or family name or
political connections would get them through ahead of the trash in line. The ones who plan on forcing their way in, bullying God with witchcraft and theologies of liberation. The ones who will not be disciplined by any authority, any instruction, any law. The
ones who consistently and finally chose to use their freedom as license
and squander their heavenly inheritance on a gamble against the house,
God’s house. Those who stand on the other side of the gate, wailing and grinding their teeth, are there b/c they choose to be there: unambiguously excluded.
I
said earlier that the Gate’s size is inversely proportionate to the
size of the pride/humility of the person seeking to get through. How do we shrink our pride and swell our humility? The
letter to the Hebrews tell us that the discipline of the Lord brings
“the peaceful fruits of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” OK. What is this discipline? “Discipline” is an ordered form of learning, an organized means of attaining knowledge and/or enlightenment. Most anything can be a discipline: exercising, dieting, reading/writing, study, prayer. The
key to discipline is that it is done in an orderly way under some
authority—a teacher, a coach, a supervisor, a spiritual director. We
are not to disdain the “discipline of the Lord,” meaning we are not to
deride or disrespect the orderly authority of Christ in teaching us his
truth. From Hebrews we learn that his discipline
is our faithful way of enduring trial, our obedient means of suffering
well under testing. This endurance, this suffering is a witness; this is testimony under duress and evidence for the Kingdom!
To
repeat: Hebrews tell us that the discipline of the Lord brings “the
peaceful fruits of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” Here’s your question for today: are you trained by the Lord’s discipline? Do you find yourself scourged by the love of the Father? He acknowledges you, so he treats you like a son; yes, even the women he treats like sons—as ones who will inherit His kingdom! Do you find pain or joy in your trials? Do you find peace or turmoil in obeying Christ? Do your hands droop and your knees grow weak thinking about the gospel-task in front of you? Do you give God thanks for your difficulties or do you complain? If
you are made lame in your trials, it is better to make straight paths
for your feet so that they may be healed and not disjointed. IOW, clear the path ahead of you by blasting it with gratitude to God! Yes, give God thanks for your diseases, your failures, your trials and persecutions, your disjointed bones and tired flesh. Thank Him and be disciplined. Be
disciplined by the love that calls you to holiness, always calls to you
to come to Him, and to pass through the narrow gate; you, shrunken in
pride but swollen with humility; you, son of God, you, last of the
least.
__________________
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