Twenty First Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle C
07/28/2022
August
In Time of Problems and Difficulties.....
The first reading is addressing the people who have returned from their exile in approximately 538 B.C.
As we can imagine, the people returning and seeing Jerusalem and the country in ruins were deeply depressed.
This author is giving them courage and telling them about the future glory of Jerusalem. The world would come to see these words of future glory completely fulfilled some 500 years later by Jesus Christ the Messiah. We too, are a part of making that new Jerusalem present in the world today. We need to understand that God is never rushed by time in carrying out His plans. It may take hundreds of years to fulfill the plan to bring humans to eternal life with Him.
Just as the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures were called to make God present in the world and to give people hope and encouragement, so we too, through our baptism, are called to make God present for others in today's world.
How do we do this on a daily basis?
Are we patient with the person who today drives us crazy?
Are we willing to go out of our way for the person we encounter today, even when that means to drop everything and help?
Are we willing to be merciful today to the person who does not deserve mercy?
The prophets were persecuted, facing suffering and even death.
That same adventure or journey is there for each of us, leading us to eternal peace and joy. Sometimes we will be rejected; sometimes there will be great difficulties; sometimes there will be persecutions and hardships; yet we are called to make the mercy and compassion of God present in the world through the way in which we treat others, even when the world believes that some do not deserve compassion or mercy.
St. Paul writes to the Hebrew community and tells them that they must expect hardships and accept them as a part of their training as they journey to eternal life. We know that the Hebrew Christians faced persecution, often times imprisoned and were even threatened with death.
We, like the early Christians, are called also to make God present in the world at times through our struggles and difficulties. They are a part of our training to enter into eternal life. There will certainly be moments of great joy, but there were also be moments of struggles and difficulties.
In the Gospel we are reminded that we are on our journey which is to lead us to eternal life. We are also told that we will in our lives, our journey to eternal life, have to choose daily which gate to enter, narrow or broad.
That narrow gate is our love for all people, even the enemy.
It's a way of life that has mercy and compassion for all people, even the most difficult.
The world teaches us not to choose the narrow gate, but the broader one, the easier gate to get through, and unfortunately that gate does not lead to eternal life.
There are many times when people, and maybe even ourselves at moments, would really prefer to go through the broader gate, which might, today, even be called the more human way of dealing with things. The broader gate leads us to feel justified when we feel that hatred and resentment, jealousy and competitiveness, and even revenge, are appropriate.
The narrow gate is always love to the other person, even to the enemy.
When we find ourselves wanting to go through the broader gate, we need to pray for the courage to be merciful, even to the one who is so difficult and so stressful to us. The way to eternal life is to live the life of Jesus. We are to be loving, caring and sharing people who walk our life's journey as Jesus did.
Which gate will you choose the next time there is a struggle, or a difficulty, or a conflict with someone?
There will, no doubt, be days we select the broader gate.
But the important thing is to recognize what we have done and pray for the grace to choose the narrow gate.
Do not give up, that is the important thing.
God is always there for us with His mercy and compassion, no matter how many times we fail.
Our spirituality develops very slowly, and usually is not even noticeable to us as we grow and develop.
Courage
Today...
...Which Gate?
Narrow and Difficult?
Broad and Easy?