THE DOOR OF GOD'S WILL

SUNDAY, TWENTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Isa 66:18-21; Ps 117; Heb 12:5-7,11-13; Lk 13:22-30

Entering through the Narrow Door

Sin, death, and corruption found a place in the universe of God through the disobedience of man to God’s word, prompted by the ancient serpent, the evil one. They are perpetuated through man’s ignorance and continuing disobedience to the word of God. Every divine plan to address the situation of our world must address the problem of sin in the world and in man specifically. Hence, the Proto-Evangelium, the first promise of salvation to fallen man and woman, is about God sending his word anew to us. The whole universe obeys the word of God, for everything came to be, and continues to be, by the word of God. The only discordant tone comes from men doing their own wills, and not God’s. The salvation of man lies in coming back to the will of the Father. Thus, the Church looks up to God, who alone can bring this about, and prays in the opening prayer that God may grant the hearts of the faithful to unite in a single purpose through loving the commandments of God and desiring what God has promised man in his word. The very essence of salvation lies in this love and desire. Love and desire for the will of God are constitutive of the people of God. The foundation of love and desire for what we do not see is faith in God and in his word. Hence, the prayer is essentially for those who believe in God, who are the people of God.

The Church prays in communion with the Holy Spirit through her head, Jesus Christ, and the prayer is in harmony with the will of the Father as expressed in the prophecy of Isaiah. “The Lord says this: I am coming to gather the nations of every language. They shall come to witness my glory. I will give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: … to the distant islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory.” The sign God continues to give us is no other sign than the sign of salvation. The sacrament he promised from the very moment of the fall of man, the Woman and her Offspring. The Maiden and her child make up the sacrament of the new world, made in perpetual harmony with the will of God. Thus, the Woman and her Offspring is not just a sign, but also the reality of the salvation of man, for the sign is also the cause of the salvation of all men as the fullness of grace. The survivors of Israel will proclaim this Gospel, which was promised and now realised, to all nations. They will make people of all nations and languages people of God because of the reality of grace within the sign. “They will proclaim my glory to the nations. As an offering to the Lord, they will bring all your brothers, on dromedaries, from all the nations to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, says the Lord, like Israelites bringing oblations in clean vessels to the Temple of the Lord.” Israel prefigured the reality of the people of God prophesied here, hence the similarity.

The proclamation of the sign or the Gospel to the nations will effectively convert men from doing their own will to faith in God and the embrace of God’s will. The reality of grace within the sign makes it effective for purifying the sins of men. Thus, they will come to the mountain of Jerusalem as clean vessels to contain the word of God. We see the effectiveness of grace in the Gospel by its ability to transform some into priests and Levites. “And of some of them I will make priests and Levites, says the Lord.” There is no gainsaying that the mountain of Jerusalem here is a symbol of the place of encounter with the living God. It is a mystical reality that all men of all nations and languages come to through faith in the word of God proclaimed to them. The reality is the Church of Christ that subsists as the Temple of the living God. The Temple of God on this holy and mystical mountain of Jerusalem is being constructed by Jesus Christ, the true Solomon.

The Lord tells us in the Gospel that the journey to Jerusalem would never be easy for anyone. The difficulty lies in the fact that it is not a physical but a mystical journey. It would involve personal conversion and transformation. God showed the promised sign to Israel as the Son of Man moved among them. “Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.” The difficulty lies in our dying to self and living by the will of God; it is in the decision to follow the Son of Man. As the one who was interested in the number of people to be saved, instead of entering salvation through the sign present to him. Faith in Jesus Christ makes us children of God. But the faith must be the foundation of our whole lives to become one with him.

God uses trials and difficulties to purify our wills from self and align them to his. Hebrews illuminates our minds on this point. “Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly, but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that he loves, and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons.” Our sufferings cleanse us and make us clean vessels to receive the glory of God, which involves loving, desiring, and doing his holy will. God brings us together for a single purpose through this purification and not just mere gathering for the celebration of the sacrament, which is meant to afford us grace to do his will. “Then you will find yourself saying, ‘We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets’ but he will reply, ‘I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you wicked men!’”

Let us pray: O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.