21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C 2019

The First Reading details the gathering of all peoples by God. The calling within the context of the Gospel criterion of the narrow gate is challenging not least because we all breathe the rather vapid or sterilised air of a therapeutic mindset. Here in Luke’s Gospel, the Lord seems to be rather uncompromising. Firstly, the background is a Jesus on the resolute road to Jerusalem. He is on the move and given that time is of the essence, He zeroes in on decisive matters without beating around the bush. For example, to someone intending to follow Him, He decreed that anyone who puts his hands on the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. That is pretty harsh, is it not? And we are not used to such “judgemental rigidity”. We expect a kinder Jesus; one who is more “understanding” of human frailty.

Why?

Today, as mentioned at the beginning, we live in a therapeutic society because everything existential about us seems to require “fixing”. Instead of life presenting itself as a set struggles, in other words, life is unfair and we should deal with it to the best of our ability, sadly, we have grown accustomed to expecting life to be uncomplicated and free from angst and anxiety. Have you ever caught yourself saying “I don’t deserve this” when you encounter difficult people or situations? Since life is a struggle and stressful, apparently almost everyone is either neurotic or clinically depressed, manic or suffering from one of the new-fangled conditions like shopping addiction. But, worry thou not because we have a fix for every tic, if not a pill for every ill. Within this afflicted ecology, the new language to acquire is “self-esteem”. Everyone needs his or her ego to be massaged in order to feel good about himself or herself. Anything less is considered to be problematic and needs to be treated. The point is, it is not enough to be good. It is imperative that one should feel good.

Hence, the challenge of passing through the narrow gate. Coupled with the therapeutic society is a welfare state of mind. It means that both society as a whole and the Church in particular owe it to us to make us feel good. There do not seem to be enough gold stars to give out in kindergartens since every child needs to feel special. By the way, is it not ironical that we want to make people feel good and hence retarded has become “special”. If “special” is so special, how come nobody wants a “special” child? The kicker, however, is this: it does not take much to extend this therapeutic expectation to God Himself. If God owes us something, whether it be happiness or health, well-being or wealth, we will naturally feel cheated if our expectations are not met. If benefit and contentment have become the goals of life, then God and by extension, the Church and society exist only to facilitate these ends. Do you ever watch AGT or BGT or the Voice, etc? All one needs is “My brother is dying from cancer and one of his goals is to see through to the finals”. Then, the crowd goes “aaah” and whilst the contestant is singing, the camera pans to the tear streaming down a judge’s face!

People regularly believe in God until a tragedy strikes. If things or events do not go according to our plans, the problem is with God. Why is He unkind? In other words, God should bend to our will rather than we to His. If that be the case, how do we enter the narrow gate? For the entrance, meaning if it is a given, it demands that we make ourselves small enough to fit through rather than it enlarges itself to suit us. Here, I will use an analogy but I am not fat-shaming. If you want to look stunningly svelte in your chosen wedding dress, you have just got to squeeze a slimmer self into the gown. As an aside, kudos to those who are not ashamed of their shape or size.

The same problematic of entitlement can be gleaned through the change in the translation that took place at Advent in 2011. Remember the Institution Narrative? “It will be shed for you and for all, for the forgiveness of sins”. In Latin, the wording is pro vobis et pro multis and thus, the literal translation we now hear is “poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins”.

The “many” created such a furore. There are priests who refused to use the word “many”. From the perspective of a God who owes it to us, “many” does come across that God is stingy with salvation. How dare God not want to save all? The profound truth is the Lord Jesus came to save all people. The reality is, however unappetising, some will be lost not because God is stingy with salvation but rather God cannot save us without our consent. St Augustine was right to remark that the God who created us without our consent cannot save us without our consent.

Thus, the man who asked Jesus on who can be saved is clarifying the issue for us. No one, not least, God, society or the Church owe it to us to make us happy. If anything, we owe it to God to make ourselves salvageable. Salvation as indicated in the Institution Narrative cannot be brought about mechanistically without our willing or participation. Through faith, we are invited to accept God’s gift of supernatural life and thus participate in it through a life which is in accord with the will of God, so that we can be numbered amongst the many whom Jesus has come to save. If the gate and the path to heaven are routinely described as narrow. It means that we must dispose ourselves for salvation. Our disposition is one way of saying to God, “No, you do not owe it to me to save me but I owe it to you since I desire your salvation”. It is consenting to God to save us. God does not condemn us to hell. We have the freedom to exclude ourselves from His generous mercy. The ball is not in God’s court; it is really in ours.