Wednesday, October 26, 2016



Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 6:1-9; Luke 13:22-30)

Church-goers should resonate with the question posed in today’s gospel about universal salvation.  We make an effort to keep the Lord’s commands and want to know if all our effort is really necessary.  Jesus’ response is both reassuring and provocative.

He says that indeed we must be disciplined if we are going to be saved.  This is what the “narrow gate” signifies—the hard road of reining in passions so that we do not act in selfish or in spiteful ways.  Discipline also means cultivating habits of civility and kindness to everyone, even to the driver who abruptly moves into our lane.

What may come as a shock is that the virtue, which the Holy Spirit inculcates, is not limited to people who look like us.  Central American mothers who send their children north to avoid their getting involved with drug cartels have the same love of family that we have.  Just so Muslims who never fail to take pity on the poor possess the same love of neighbor as we.  These people too will find a place reserved for them in the kingdom of the just.