Homily for 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 21, 2022
Luke 13: 22-30
Ursulines, The Fountains, Tuckahoe, N.Y.                             
St. Pius X, Scarsdale, N.Y.

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” (Luke 13: 23).

Some of Jesus’ parables and some of his warnings to the scribes and Pharisees may have caused his listeners to wonder at their chances of salvation; or, human nature being what it is, to wonder at someone else’s chance of salvation.

There’s a strain of Christianity, and I suspect in some other faiths, that takes pride in being among the elect, God’s chosen ones, and almost sneers at the unfortunates who don’t follow Jesus, or follow Torah, or follow the Prophet, as the case may be.  The Christian variety of such souls may almost gloat that most people will be lost—but not them.  “I was saved when I gave my life to my Lord Jesus on such-and-such a day.”  (To be clear, some evangelicals who talk that way sincerely work to bring other souls to the Lord.)

The flip side of that strain of Christianity is the kind of Christian, including many Catholics, who almost despairs of salvation.  They fear death.  They fear the vengeance of God, like “sinners in the hand of an angry God,” to cite a sermon of Jonathan Edwards that we used to read in American lit.  They may be half sincere when they tell you that the church roof would collapse if ever they entered the building; or, “Father, you wouldn’t have enuf time to hear my confession” (which more often means either, “I’m too embarrassed to confess,” or “I’m not ready to change my behavior”).  This kind of Christian is afraid, precisely, that only a few will be saved, and he or she won’t make the cut.

Illustration from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress

Jesus avoids answering the question.  He encourages his listeners, “Strive to enter thru the narrow gate” (13:24), which means it takes effort to get into God’s kingdom; and also warns the complacent not to presume that they’ll be able to get in.  They may claim that they know Jesus:  “We ate and drank in your company” (13:26), we went to church on Sunday, we bought raffle tickets, we went to pancake breakfasts.

Jesus’ warning is certainly directed to some who heard his preaching but didn’t accept it, like his opponents among the scribes and Pharisees, and anyone whom he calls an “evildoer”—“Depart from me, all you evildoers” (13:27).  He also warns them that outsiders “from the east and the west and the north and south” will get into the kingdom of God (13:29), from the foreign nations, non-Jews—because they’ve listened to Jesus and changed their evil ways.  Jesus isn’t a moral marshmallow.  He makes demands on us:  “strive to enter thru the narrow gate.”

You all know that St. Peter watches the gates of heaven, right?  Actually, St. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus himself stands at the gate:  “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.  Whoever enters thru me will be saved” (10:7,9).  And this is encouraging.  He wants us to come to him and be admitted to the sheepfold—or to the kingdom of God:  different image, same goal.  He even lays down his life to protect his sheep (John 10:15).

It’s God’s will that everyone be saved and come to eternal life.  That’s why the Son of God became one of us—to show us the depth of God’s love, God’s desire to reclaim us as his children.  Will many be saved?  As many as sincerely turn to Jesus and let him embrace them and lead them back to God; as many as “make straight paths for [their] feet,” as the Letter to the Hebrews says (12:13), who strive to walk in the ways that Jesus teaches us:  kindness, forgiveness, generosity, peaceableness, honesty, faithfulness.  “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” (Luke 13:29).

An evangelical may claim that Jesus saved him on such-and-such a day.  It’s true that Jesus has already accomplished the work of our salvation.  But our end of the work is never complete in this life:  “strive to enter thru the narrow gate.”  Our following Jesus to and thru the gate is a daily strife against the Evil One and against our own sinful inclinations.  “So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees,” Hebrews urges us (12:12).  But Jesus is with us.  The saints [like St. Pius] encourage us.  Last week’s reading from Hebrews said, “We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” who encourage us to persevere in running the race before us, the race toward Jesus and eternal life (12:1).  The saints are like a stadium full of fans rooting for us—more than that, interceding for us, that God forgive our sins, heal us, and bring us safely home alongside them.

And God wants us safely home.  “Will only a few people be saved?”  Not if it’s up to God, not if we’re willing to let Jesus seize us and lead us thru the narrow gate.