Sunday, August 21, 2016 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Is 66:18-21 Gospel Reading: Lk 13:22-30
Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from. And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Instead of coming up with an estimate when asked about how many will be saved, Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate…” This answer shifted the focus from quantity to quality. For as long as people try their best, salvation is available. But here is the catch: not all those who strive will qualify. To some of them the Lord will say: “I do not know where you are from.” This is not about one’s place of origin but about one’s theory of salvation. The only valid theory of salvation is the theory that love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor.
If one operates under the theory of duplicity, he surrounds his life with so many rituals as he despises others. In the end he will hear God say: “I do not know where you are coming from”. Of all the theories of salvation human beings have invented, it is the theory of duplicity that God dislikes the most. In the Book of Revelation we read: “Because you are neither hot nor cold I will vomit you” (Rev. 3:15).
The following anecdote illustrates who is a person of duplicity. A man in a devil costume entered the wrong hall at a convention center and found himself before a shocked assembly of old women in the middle of a Eucharistic celebration. They had put off the lights for dramatic effect and only the altar candles illuminated the hall. They scampered away thinking that the devil was for real. One woman who was trapped in a corner pleaded with the ‘devil’, saying, “Please don’t harm me; you know where my heart is!”
Will only a few people be saved? It depends on how many will substantiate their love of God with love of neighbor. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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