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.
