First Reading --   Brothers and sisters of every race and language will be brought to Jerusalem (IS 66:18-21).

Psalm -- Go out to all the world and tell the Good News (PS 117:1,2)

Second Reading --   Be strong and endure your trials as the "discipline" of a loving God, for it will result in the peaceful fruit of righteousness(HEB 12:5-7, 11-13).

Gospel -- People from east and west, north and south, recline at table in the kingdom of God (LK 13:22-30).

---

---

Reflection by Opening the Word

First Reading
One of the prominent themes of the last chapters of Isaiah is the one we see in this reading, too, that the divine plan includes all the nations and not simply Israel. In this section of the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, that theme, the comfort God will supply for the righteous among all the nations, is paired with the judgment that he will exact upon the unrighteous. “Lo, the LORD shall come in fire,/ his chariots like the whirlwind,/ To wreak his wrath with burning heat/ and his punishment with fiery flames” (Isaiah 66:15).

St. Peter says that “the present heavens and earth have been reserved by the same word for fire, kept for the day of judgment and of destruction of the godless” (2 Peter 3:7), and then, as does Isaiah, goes on to speak of the “new heavens and a new earth” that will follow that final conflagration. It is in that worldmade-new that the nations who have warred throughout history will finally be at peace. And to those who have remained faithful to God, from every race and nation he promises, “As the new heavens and the new earth/ which I will make/ Shall endure before me, says the LORD,/ so shall your race and your name endure” (Isaiah 66:22). St. Peter admonishes all Christians as to how to live in light of this mystery: “Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought (you) to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire” (2 Peter 3:11-12).

Second Reading
We have discussed before the likely audience of the letter to the Hebrews, those Jews who now face persecution for their Christian faith and long to return to the habits of their previous way of life. It would have been easy for these Jewish Christians to imagine that they were perhaps being punished by God for leaving the faith of their fathers to enter upon the Christ Way. The author here reminds them that even on the natural level the pain of discipline is a necessary part of the maturation and growth of children. And so, the children of God ought to expect that struggles will come as the normal means of growth in faith, too. As we know, in Christ the discipline of suffering has even been made redemptive, when we make of our suffering a way of sharing in his. In this way, pain is turned to righteousness. We, too, can mistakenly think that the gift of undeserved suffering as a sign of divine disapproval, when, in fact, it is an invitation to enter upon a “straight path” to be more fully conformed to our suffering Savior and to grow in intimacy with him.

Gospel
It is a very sobering picture of the final judgment that Jesus paints for us in this Gospel text. Those who find themselves outside the heavenly gate seem to have sufficient faith to call Jesus “Lord.” They can even, in some measure, boast of having enjoyed the Lord’s company, but their evildoing makes admittance to the Father’s house impossible. It is not enough to profess faith in Christ’s lordship, although that is critical. It is not sufficient to eat and drink in the Lord’s company, as we do at every Mass.

The Gospel imperative is that we are to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). That means much more than just being in the right place on Sunday morning. It means placing ourselves entirely at the disposition of God’s grace and so surrendering ourselves to it in such a way that we become what St. Peter calls “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4, RSV). What we are called to is a high degree of holiness or sanctity.

The Second Vatican Council in the fifth chapter of its Constitution on the Church speaks of this as a “universal call.” It is not just a task for the consecrated and ordained; it is the common Christian vocation of the baptized. And answering that call is the only thing in life worth doing. Everything else must be measured in light of it and subordinated to it. This might sound like overstatement until we recognize that the soul of sanctity is love. It is love that makes us like God and love alone is worth the whole of our striving.
 

---

---

The presenter, Jim Beckman, uses a quote from St. Augustine to help clarify what the Gospel reading is teaching. The quote contrasts two cities: The City of God is characterized by a love for God even to the point of self-denial and contempt of self, while the City of Man is characterized by a love for self which leads a person to neglect giving God the honor and love he deserves and ultimately to what Augustine calls “contempt of God.” When you hear those words, how would you assess your own state? Are you more in the City of God? Or more in the City of Man?

Imagine yourself in that situation described by the Gospel reading. The master of the house has arisen, and is shutting the door. It’s not shut yet, but it is getting more “narrow.” What are you feeling as you see the opening growing tighter? Now look back over your life. What things have you allowed yourself to be attached to? What things will make it hard for you to fit through the door? How have you picked up habits and preferences and tastes that lead you more and more into what we have seen Augustine call the “City of Man”? Imagine those things all around you now as you try to get through that door. What do you need to let go of?
 

---

---

Reprinted from  Opening the Word at Formed.org .
Click here (subscribe for FREE)  to get the full content of Opening the Word, including video reflections, study guides and journals for the Sunday Mass readings of the year.

Click logo to sign up for FORMED!


Already Registered? Click Login...