St James Catholic Church

Our Gospel today asks a very important question that is probably on all our minds.  “Are only a few people going to be saved?”  And better yet, “am I going to be saved?”  When the people who asked the question, it would certainly be on the assumption that the Kingdom of God was for the Jews and that gentiles would be shut out.  Jesus’ answer must have come as a shock to him.

Jesus declared that entry to the Kingdom can never be automatic but is the result and the reward of a struggle.  “Keep on striving to enter.”  The word for striving is the word from which the English word agony is derived.  The struggle to enter in must be so intense that it can be described as an agony of soul and spirit. 

We run a certain danger to think that once we have made a commitment of ourselves to Jesus Christ, we have reached the end of the road and can just sit back as if we had achieved our goal.  There is no such finality in the Christian life.  A person must ever be going forward or necessarily goes backwards.  Our life should be ever onward and upward.

There will be surprises in the Kingdom of God.  Those who are very prominent in this world may have to be very humble in the next.  As the story goes about one person complaining about the size of their house in the Kingdom.  The angel answered, “I’m sorry but that is all we could build for you with the materials you sent up.”

My answer to the question is the once Jesus gave in the parable of the Last Judgment. Whatever we do or don’t do to the least of our brothers and sisters we do or don’t do for Him.  Read over Matthew 25:31-46.  I think we’ll all be surprised to see whose there—Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, convicts, poor, rich, famous, unknown, wise, even foolish and people from every race and nation.  Just keep striving to enter through the narrow door.

Love, Peace, Joy

Fr. Bob