+ The gospel passage that we have just heard makes it clear that unless the invited to the Kingdom of God keep their focus sharp and their motives pure then they will be excluded from the Kingdom at the end of time – and those who already have pure hearts with their focus on God alone – will take their place – "off the streets!"
For us this means that if we try the best we can to love God and do what he asks of us to do each day because we love God and do not want to disappoint him or our brothers and sisters – then we will have a place safely reserved in the Kingdom – we will eat at the table of the Lord. If, on the other hand, we have invented all kinds of excuses and corner-cutting schemes to basically do what we want to do even though God may be calling us to do something different, then we ought not be surprised when the Lord of the table tells us that we have no place with him: the chairs at his table are reserved for those who do his Father's will.
And what is this "will of the Father"? – as St. Paul tells the Romans, it is doing things like: being sincere, hating what is evil, holding on to what is good, loving one another with mutual affection; anticipating one another in showing honor; not growing slack in zeal, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction, persevering in prayer; contributing to the needs of the holy ones, exercising hospitality, blessing those who persecute you, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, having the same regard for one another; not being haughty but associating with the lowly!
Do these things, thus keeping your focus, and you will sit at my table in my Kingdom; omit these things and you won't – says, the Lord – and I mean it!
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