Wednesday October 30, 2024

Luke 13:22-30

Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.

My head is spinning. Yesterday our Lord says “The Kingdom of God is like a mustard tree…” meaning it is plentiful and everywhere. Today he says many will try to enter and will not succeed. Well … which one is it?

It is both!! Access to the Kingdom is plentiful but also we must give it our best shot. It is about learning to let go of the baggage and preconceptions everyday. It is about learning and re-learning. The biggest obstacle for his audience is accepting that the cross can be a path to life.

Now I have talked about the cross a lot. For some of us the cross means absolute pain and suffering. That is true and can be true. The cross is more shame and failure. We can take pain…. But shame destroys us, guilt haunts us. Can we come to a place in our lives when we can live happily past the shame that is attached to our biography? Can we say to those things “you too are part of my sacred biography.”

Many can’t get past that. Well that is my take on this reading. What is yours?

Love you

Fr. Chibundi