+ Our gospel passage today has to do with a couple of hard sayings
of Jesus. Enter the kingdom through the narrow gate, is one saying;
there are only a few who find it, is the second saying.
These sayings are hard because
they are not sugar-coated, egocentric, or “metaphorical!” They say what they
mean. The narrow gate that is offered to us, is the gate of accepting reality
as it is, dealing with it, and seeing the will of God in everything that comes our
way: either directly or indirectly, either willed or allowed. The
happy-go-lucky, easier, softer way is the wide way that leads ultimately to
perdition. It is the way of glitter, glamour, me-first; it is the way of power,
greed, lust and lavish lifestyle; it is a way that replaces God with a myriad of idols that
soothe the savage beast within who is competing for possession of the soul.
The road to perdition leads to
hell, plain and simple: hell is a state of eternal separation, eternal egoism
which has no power at all to save one, eternal darkness and tortuous enactments
that will just never cease. Heaven is just the opposite, the state of eternal
inclusion, eternal communion, eternal togetherness, eternal good-times, eternal
love and peace and joy and wisdom, the way won by the defeat of evil by The
God/Man, the Messiah/Saviour, Jesus, the Lord of Everything.
And so what this means is that
we must not throw holy things to the dogs, to mix a metaphor – we must
now throw pearls before swine: we must seek, ask for, and cherish all
that God gives us personally and directly to cooperate in our own fulfillment
and destiny – but it is a hard way because it demands literally moment by
moment rechoosing, re-deciding, reprioritizing everything so that it is in
alignment with what God’s will and purpose is for our life: and that has
everything to do with being a willing and cheerful instrument in His hands to
bring about good things in the lives of others: if we are all open to this then
our own needs will be met, and so will the needs of all others – now this is
heaven – this is the opposite of the very real condition of hell!
Blessed are you Lord, Father
of heaven and earth, who has revealed the mysteries of the kingdom to mere
children: your children, me!
No comments:
Post a Comment