Homily

This Sunday’s liturgy opens with a vision of the salvation intended by God, “I am coming to gather all nations and tongues,” says the Lord, “and they shall come and shall see my glory” (Is 66:18). We could say that God does not hide his plan for salvation, and what he plans is to make all the peoples of the earth into one family. Indeed, God revealed this plan when he made his first covenant with Israel. Even if Isaiah was speaking only to the people of Israel, he was foretelling the day in which all the peoples of the earth would be gathered on the holy mountain to praise the one Lord. This aspiration for universal salvation is already evident in the first pages of the Bible. All men and women from every land and age are gathered in Adam and Eve. And when God saved Noah from the flood he gave him a universal covenant in the name of the whole of humanity. The Lord has always been the friend of men and women, and from the beginning he has wanted to save every one of them. Salvation is a gift from heaven that is intended for everyone, and the Lord wants to give it to everyone. But no one can claim it as a right or take possession of it because of their birth or some exterior affiliation. Salvation is not the property of any ethnicity, group, community, people, nation, or civilization.
In the Gospel of Luke announced this Sunday someone asks Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” (13:23). The current thinking of the time was based on the conviction that belonging to the chosen people was sufficient to be a part of the future kingdom. But this question seems to suggest that it is not enough to belong to the chosen people to obtain salvation. Jesus agrees but goes further. He does not answer the questioner directly but instead speaks to all who are present saying, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able” (v. 24). Jesus underscores the fact that the door is narrow, but still open. Time is running out, however, and the door is about to close. We need to enter, because the master of the house is about to get up and close the door. And if we are left outside, maybe because we were delayed by our own affairs, it will no longer be enough to keep knocking and boasting about our right of belonging, our habits, or even our merits. The master will not open.
This is why the central question asked by Jesus uses the metaphor of a door. We urgently need to follow the Gospel. Salvation does not consist in belonging to a people or even simply belonging to a community. It is not a question of taking part in certain rites, even the Sunday liturgy, but promptly adhering to the Lord with our whole heart and our whole life. The same habits for which the Pharisees are criticized can take root in the Church. We too can live with the pride and certainty of not having to change anything about how we act; we too can live by observing exterior practices while keeping a hard heart, distant from God and humanity. While indifference seems to be winning out and the habit of turning in on ourselves seems to be growing stronger, there is a real urgency for each one of us find his or her spiritual depth by listening to the Gospel, serving the poor, and living in fraternity with all. But unfortunately it is not rare for individual believers and the Christian communities themselves to be overtaken by the petty and selfish mentality of the world and close themselves in their idiosyncrasies and personal problems.
We know this from experience: the door of selfishness is wide; it is always open and many people walk through it. The Letter to the Hebrews is right to remind us about correction. Yes, the correction of our heart and our behaviour. The Gospel is the door. It is narrow, but not in and of itself. It is narrow with respect to the many long branches that sprout from our selfishness. In order to enter this door, we have to cut off the branches of pride, hatred, greed, speaking ill of, indifference, envy, and many more. These branches have grown and thickened so much that they have made it impossible for us to walk through that door. Those who welcome the Gospel in their hearts are pruned. And it is true, as is written in the Letter to the Hebrews, that this pruning “always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (v. 11). The fruit is being able to enter the great hall prepared by the Lord, where “people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God” (Lk 13:29). We can already taste this feast here in the holy liturgy and enjoy it with people who once were foreign but who are now our brothers and sisters because we are all part of the one family of God. That is why Jesus can tell us the same thing he once told the people who were listening to him, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it” (Lk 10:23-24).