At the prenuptial enquiry, I often remark to the non-Catholic party (Protestant or otherwise) that he or she is “sway” (unlucky) to marry a Catholic because he or she has to be “subjected” to Catholic laws. It is unfair but there is an explanation for it.
Today’s Gospel may help us understand this unfairness. Christ tells us that the road to salvation is via a narrow gate. This requirement suggests a Catholic or anyone who claims to be His follower is called to a higher standard. Easy discipleship is not our vocation. At times, people believe that conversion, that is, baptism is the doorway to a better or “blessed” (material-wise, that is) life.
It is not. Baptism is just a decision to follow Christ. There is no easy way to take up the Cross and to follow Him. The vocation to follow the Lord must be seen in the larger context of the 1st Reading. God intends everyone’s salvation. He will gather into His fold, humanity from all the nations to witness to His glory and be saved. The 2nd Reading also makes sense in light of the universal vocation to move towards God. Human that we are, we are subject to the struggles of being faithful to our vocation. Right now we are bombarded by imageries of the conflict and hunger in Gaza. They are graphic and shocking because they are visible. But there is a battlefield far more latent or hidden and it is the human heart where the true struggles between good and evil take place.
Thus the 2nd Reading addresses this truth of our struggles. The author of the Hebrews looks at punishment from God as a form of discipline and rehabilitation. Sadly we have an aversion towards punishment and this distaste arises possibly from a mistaken notion that love should be permissive tolerancecoupled with the absence of prohibition.
What might not be apparent for most is that within the Church’s legal system, punishment or penalty is actually an expression of love that balances both the criteria of justice and mercy. Justice requires that we be accountable for our actions. Mercy is articulated through compassion for those who have fallen.
Excommunication for example. It sounds forbidding and even punishing. But it is not as condemnatory as it is to allow one to recognise the wrong, the sin or the evil committed and to seek reconciliation through the Sacrament of Penance. It is never meant to be a complete or utter separation of a person from the community. It allows sinners to repent, to restore relationship and to return to the community. In fact, an excommunicated person is still under obligation to attend Mass on Sunday, just that he or she is prohibited from receiving Holy Communion.
Love is not permissive. The system of sanction in the Church is medicinal for aperson to come to his or her senses because the true nature of love is that it draws boundaries. It is not tolerance or acceptance of anything and everything. Boundaries are created by love because there are behaviours which are harmful to the lover as well as to the beloved. A man loves his wife and in order for his love to be true, he draws lines which he will not cross. The love he has will never visit upon another woman.
It is the same for how God loves us. He desires our good which allows us to look at His salvific will for humanity. It is universal and as such the Gospel does not discuss or label who will be saved except that salvation depends on a person following Christ. Our behaviour should mirror Christ in the acceptance of God’s will. It means that we will follow Him closely without counting cost or reward.
This is perhaps one of the greatest challenges we face because of our hesitation with regard to suffering. It is a natural inclination to shy from pain because of the innate mechanism of self-preservation. Like gold, we need to be tested by fire and purified because those who claim discipleship are not automatically saved. Those who call out “Lord, Lord” will not necessarily be admitted into heaven. As the Gospel says, others will come to take our place if we are not careful about the state of our souls. That is the standard of God’s invitation.
More than ever, now that we have lost our social net, to follow Christ has to be a conscious personal choice. In the past, we could in some ways depend on religion being a social phenomenon. I know of a housing area near to a neighbouring parish where almost every household is Catholic. The shared commonality in terms of rites and festivals can buoy a person up, even a lukewarm Catholic. But as more of our social fabric is weakened by individualism, now one has to make a conscious choice to live according to what the faith teaches.
Without that commitment, one can be swept away easily by prevailing winds. Fundamental to the conscious choice of following Christ is to understand what it entails. We will have to sacrifice in order to follow Him. Is it worth it that one should deny oneself, give up sin and follow Him? For example, why are you here? To fulfil an obligation? Is that enough? In other words what makes it worth our while to sacrifice? The conundrum of St Augustine highlights a truth of an existence caught between now and eternity. He prayed, “Lord make me chaste but not yet”. We instinctively desire heaven but the allurement of this world is too much to give up.
It might help to recognise that whatever deal the world gives, it is always a bad deal when compared to a life with Christ in heaven. That is the only way we can overcome the world and it is to know that nothing measures up to a life withChrist our Lord. Our completed prayer room is named after Saint Carlos Acutis. He died at the age of 16. Even at his tender age he already knew what it meant to give everything up for Christ. In fact, he gave up his earthly life. He said this “Everyone is born as an original but many people end up dying as photocopies”. The aboriginality that we have been created in should give us a clue why we ought to live for Christ for He is the reason why we are here in the first place and that giving all for Him is the only logical action we can take.
