Be Attentive To Your Salvation

Most recall the well-known words of Jesus, “ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

Today’s Gospel passage is also about asking, seeking and knocking, but the big difference is that door remains locked. Not only that, but the master inside tells the person knocking to get lost because he does not even know him.

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

Jesus makes a clear point by telling the parable; a parable with an unpopular teaching back then, and an unpopular teaching today: entering the Kingdom of God will require hard work. It is difficult. You will not achieve salvation by accident – you do not stumble into it. What does it take?

Those who were listening to Jesus back then were mostly scholars of the law: the highly educated pharisees and scribes who oftentimes looked down upon the general population because they were learned and educated. Jesus reminds them: all your knowledge will not save you, where is your heart? Jesus challenges them: it is possible to know God, to call out to him, to study and learn much, but God knows your heart in and out. It is not enough to know so much about God, what counts is how the Gospel is made a reality in how you live out your life.

There was once monk walking along a river with a young novice. The novice was full of questions, “where does the water go? Is the water cold? Does it flow quickly? How deep is it?” on and on with his questions… the old monk grew annoyed by the many questions, but also found a perfect teaching moment. He pushed the novice into the water and said, “don’t ask so many questions, it is better to dive in and find out for yourself.”

Jesus tells the pharisees back then, and tells us now, that we cannot remain on the bank of the river, we have to dive in when it comes to our relationship with God. Otherwise, we risk remaining outside the house of the master.

Our salvation can be likened to playing a sport, you cannot remain a simple spectator on the sidelines. You have to join the game, you have to dive in.

As a priest, I oftentimes hear people say as a point of reference for their Catholicism, “I went to Catholic School” or “my parents are very Catholic Father, always at church, very involved.” Those things are great and wonderful! But those facts will not save you. You went to Catholic school as a kid, great, but where is your heart now? How is your relationship with God now? Your parents may be great Catholics and they took you to church all the time as a child, but, where is your heart now? You will not be saved by the fumes of someone else’s relationship with God.

This parable is not about God’s harshness or his desire to condemn some people into the darkness where there is wailing and grinding of teeth, but rather it is a reminder: be attentive to the salvation of your soul. Do not take it for granted. Do not assume you have it made, because God will ask for an account of your life when you see him face to face.

Saint Augustine who lived sixteen centuries ago famously said, “he who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”

These words of Saint Augustine speak of the freedom that God gives us to choose Him or to reject Him. We choose God every day, with every decision we make. We never remain impartial. God gives us freedom because he wants us to choose Him out of our own free will. If we were like robots, what good would it be to always choose what is good? It is in choosing what is good and right every day, that we work on our relationship with God. God gives us the ability to recognize what is good and right, and to choose it. In doing so, he gives us the grace to go through the narrow gate.

How do we choose God each day? How do we jump into the river? God will not save us without our consent… will we stay in the bench or take an active role in the game? God wants us to go through the narrow gate, and He will help us, it is up to us to choose Him each day, every moment of our lives, in response to his call to follow Him.

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Be attentive to your salvation