Homily – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

Fr Cuthbert Brennan OSB

What are we to make of the God we encounter in our readings this morning? Luke continues to present to us the God of the great reversal. The last shall be first the first shall be last. We are warned that close proximity to Jesus doesn’t guarantee us a seat at the banquet and is not to be equated with struggling to enter through the narrow door. Jesus seems to go beyond his inner circle when envisioning the vastness of God’s beloved – he goes so far as to clarify that a certain group who thought they could rely on their social connections and long-time friendship with Jesus would not make it through the narrow door, while hoards of others would be invited to recline at table.

Insiders become the outsiders and the outsiders become the insiders. It would seem that God is not fair.

Does not our baptismal cert give us priority boarding, our guarantee for access to the fast track corridor? We attend and participate, be it here physically or virtually via the webcam. However, Jesus this morning says Be careful, if you think you have a boarding pass, if you think you know who should get in and who shouldn’t, you might just have locked the door against yourself.

How many will be saved?

The better question is ‘How may I be included among the people of God? And the answer we are given is to strive to enter through the narrow door. Strive! There is effort required to enter through the narrow door and Jesus makes a point of saying that many will not be strong enough to accomplish it. In antiquity, the synagogue often had a large door where people of status would enter and a narrow door where people of lower status would enter and the use of such imagery by Jesus suggests a call to solidarity with those who enter through the narrow door, those who are on the margins of society.

The narrow door in the gospel this morning is not a thing: it is a person. Jesus is the true narrow door through whom we must pass. The irony in the revelation is that the narrow door can properly be understood, not only as the person of Jesus Christ, but more broadly, as the justice enacted in his name. It is based on what we do…..the justice that we enact. The author of the letter to the Hebrews calls our attention to this. We are to be trained in righteousness, and this is not always pleasant or easy. Many of us need to rid ourselves of selfishness and greed. Others of us need to cleanse our hearts of biases and discrimination.

For us today, as for the Lukan community, the struggle is for humility and solidarity with the marginalised in society. What our baptismal cert does give us is the responsibility of witnessing to the entire world, the glory and justice of God. We are called to reverse our attitudes and practices, avoid the large door, and struggle to enter through the narrow door with the people who need us to be with them. Who is that person for you today? Maybe it is a person of a different faith, or someone who holds a different political position from you. Maybe it is a person of a different racial identity or gender classification. Whoever that person is, they should be able to recognise God’s goodness in the way we live our lives and in the manner in which we interact with them. They are the living keys, which can pry open the narrow door that is often rusted shut by our own prejudice. We are to strive to enter through the narrow door. We are to be disciplined in gospel ways, disciplined to practice justice, to expand our narrow minds and hearts so that we might honour those whom society diminishes, casts aside and overlooks. They hold the key to our salvation, for when we open a door for them they in turn open the door of the just Christ for us.

God is not fair, but depending on where you are in the line that can be good news.

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