Scripture Reflections for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Precisely as divine, Jesus is the one now who can open the way to bring the God of Israel to all the nations”

“When God punishes it is done as a discipline out of love”

“So when we start to worry about who or how many people will be saved the thing to do is to focus on our discipleship. Do we do what Christ tells us to?”

“We do not get to Heaven if we do not seek forgiveness. Bottom line. There are a lot of other things that may make our path shorter, but in the end, if we don’t open up that door and ask for God’s forgiveness, then it may be a long eternity for some of us.”

“the master who has locked the door. It can only be opened from the inside, which is to say God's help will be necessary. It's not something that we need to do on our own nor can do on our own.”

“It seems to me the man asked, 'are there only a few who will be saved?' Meaning the few of us insiders. Jesus is saying expand your imagination. Expand your sense of what is possible.”

“being the women and men God wants us to be is not easy. It is strenuous because we have to change. We have to change our hearts...To be holy there has to be a continual surrender of our wills to God's will. Our plans to God's plan.”

“The 'narrow gate' is what? It's the path of discipleship which Jesus described famously as 'taking up your cross everyday and following the Lord'”

“What does it mean to be saved?...to participate to the fullest degree possible in the very life of God. It means conformity to love. It means surrendering to the grace of God and then allowing that grace, listen, to invade every aspect of your life so that grace flows through you and into the wider world.”

“Too often our minimum effort wants to be seen as our maximum. It seems that Jesus is asking us to honestly reflect upon the match or mismatch between our potential and our production – between what we know to be the higher way and the unobtrusive or easy way.”

“If I think of Fruits of the Spirit...they ALL develop well in the middle of trials and problems. I have learned to love by loving people who are hard to love. I have found joy by losing happiness. Storms in life have enabled me to seek and find peace within.”

“Salvation is not a question of heredity (like being Jewish or Gentile). It is not “already made” either. It can only be earned through personal commitment. Hence the concept of “struggle.””

“We, as people of faith called to kindness, justice, and humble openness to God’s presence among us, cannot afford to lose sight of the persons around us who live extraordinary lives of daily struggle now”

“The other side of the gate, then, God’s side, is wide open. It is as wide as the love of God, which is to say that it is, in fact, infinitely wide. The gate is narrow, not from God’s side, but from ours.”

“One of the women who helps prepare our Sunday liturgies said to us, “How many years have passed since this book was written, and yet we seem so far from what Isaiah is telling us. Why is it that over all this time, we seem to be creating even greater distances among one other?””

“Sin is a reality in our lives. We see its presence everywhere in the world. The mistake is in thinking that it is not really our concern, that we can remain detached from human suffering or injustice at home or abroad.”

“We can gain admission to the heavenly banquet on one condition: if we are hungry to be there. Those who think they have a right to be there will get a shock; they have not tried their best to enter by the narrow door, which paradoxically welcomes countless unexpected guests through it; it is the door of humility, of need, of poverty in spirit.”