21st Sunday of the Year C 2016

May the risen Christ Jesus who appears to us in a special way during our Sunday Eucharistic celebration continue to shower God’s glory and graces on you and make you diligent and docile in witnessing through the way you live as a convinced and coherent Christian that God wants all to be saved. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH (Isaiah 66, 18-21; Hebrew 12,5-7.11-13; Luke 13, 22-30: 21st Sunday of the Year C  2016)

    As Jesus was moving towards Jerusalem, an unidentified person posed this question to him: Sir, will there be only a few saved? During Jesus’ time, there seemed to have been divergent opinions in Jew regarding the number of people to be saved. Some optimistically, held that all Israel would be saved while others held that only a few would. In reference to the pagans, the common opinion or hypothesis was that they would be excluded from the kingdom of God and salvation. This opinion, however, did not take into consideration the repeated prophetic indications regarding the universal salvation. In the gospel passage of today, Jesus does not give any direct answer to the question, but turns the focus from curiosity about salvation of others to concern about one’s own future. He exhorts: Try yourself to enter the narrow door, because I tell you many will try to enter and will not succeed. In this exhortation Jesus used the verb, to try, whose Greek equivalent(agonizomai) is used when describing the energy put forward during athletic competition (as a lot of people are doing these days in Rio, in Brazil). With this exhortation he is encouraging his listeners and us to struggle for the goal ahead so that we commit ourselves, wholeheartedly, to the task of contributing our quota towards our own salvation. He then tells a story about admission into the marriage banquet hall to illustrate how difficult it will be for some to be saved. This does not in any way give any hint that salvation is open to only a few. Rather, it shows that some do not make adequate effort to get into the banquet hall. They either do not respond to the invitation promptly and then come too late to be admitted, or they presume that casual association with, rather than genuine commitment to, the master of the house (presumably Jesus) is adequate. To add to the chagrin of those not admitted, they will be informed that those whom they look down upon as outsiders and unworthy for the kingdom will be the very people who will be admitted to the banquet while they will continue to remain outside and mourn their fates and disappointments. Those who will be admitted will probably be the righteous Gentiles who will be dining with the heroes and Patriarchs of the Jewish race.

    One may ask: what is the full implication of Jesus’ exhortation: Try yourself to enter the narrow door? What does it boil down to in real life for the listeners of Jesus in those days and for us Christians of today. It points, essentially, to two implications. The first is to deny oneself. Denying oneself means eliminating selfishness as well as various evil inclinations and accepting, willingly, the cross as a means of sanctification. The second implication is to follow Christ wholeheartedly. This means making a choice in conformity with the will of God without conforming oneself with the worldly mentality. But in effect, it is not easy because it is about living in honesty and sincerity in a world of iniquity and corruption, practicing justice in a world where injustice often prevails, living in a generous love in a world full of hatred and the spirit of vengeance; believing in the purity of heart, thought and sentiments in a world diffused with sensuality and moral corruption, believing truly in the detachment from material things in a world that worships material possession. In the face of all these, it is necessary to move against the current and commit oneself seriously and urgently in the struggle to be saved and be counted among those to be admitted into the banquet hall.

    In his exhortation, Jesus mentioned that the door that leads to salvation is narrow. It is too narrow to be used by more than one person at a time. In effect, it means making individual and personal choices and decisions. We do not go through it in virtue of any particular right or privilege. Just as it was no advantage to the Jewish people to have been the descendants of Abraham, the father of faith or to have had Jesus as a guest, or to have listened to him and even eaten with him, in the same way our mere belonging to Church through baptism does not matter much. We should not fall into the same kind of false security like the Jewish people who prided themselves as children of Abraham, yet could not recognize or believe Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Communicating at the Eucharistic celebration, listening to the word of God, invoking God in prayer will not be efficacious enough to save us if we do not go through the narrow door with the full implications of denying ourselves, accepting the sufferings and sacrifices that go with the cost of follower-ship of Jesus as his committed disciple.

    In today’s gospel reading, Jesus indicated that those who would be saved will come from all the zones of the earth. This is in consonance with what prophet Isaiah has in the first reading, where God himself says: I am coming to gather the nations of every language. This gathering of people is very unusual, for the people brought together come from every nation. They were not Israelites returning home from the Diaspora, they were pagans. They were not captives of war who have been forced into the land by victorious Israelites, there to serve as slaves. Rather, they were brought in by God and to them will be revealed the glory of God. These foreign nations will be a sign to other foreigners of the glory they themselves have seen. They were also sent out to announce God’s fame abroad and to bring their new converts to worship the God of Israel in the Temple of Jerusalem. What is more, God will, from these foreign people call forth priests and Levites.

    Thus the passage from both Isaiah and Luke are astounding in their inclusivity, that is to say, they do not exclude anyone from the salvation of God. Both uphold the idea that God wants all to be saved. They show that God’s saving grace is unbounded. In the first reading the foreigners are to announce God’s fame and to bring in new converts. Today, the exhortation or command is directed to us. We are the ones who are being sent out to bring others to God. Every Eucharistic celebration ends with the commission to which we respond, Thanks be to God. (One of the commissioning exhortations runs thus: The Mass is ended, go and announce the Gospel of the Lord). The readings of today remind us of this responsibility. We are sent back to the people and circumstances of our lives, there to be ambassadors of the saving grace of God. Others will hear of the fame and see the glory of God only through us. We are sent to be the light shining on the hill for all to see, we are sent to be the yeast that enables the dough to rise. We proclaim the God we worship and serve in the way we transact our business in our offices, in the market places, in the classrooms, in the neighbourhood, in village gatherings, in social gatherings, in the family gathering, etc. Therefore, let the way we live, proclaim to the world, in which we live, that salvation is for all and we are evidence of this. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye 

GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE