Oh poor us, poor us. This is all so hard. We are
questioned for our beliefs, and we are often outright persecuted for our faith.
Oh, poor us, poor us. We go to the market place and can’t buy the best meat
because it was part of a pagan sacrifice. Oh, poor us, poor us. Our parents and
grandparents were so excited by this new faith, this Christianity, but we are
not all that excited. We put up with it though, just in case it is right. But
it is such a struggle to be Christians.
Oh, poor us, poor us…[1]
The people doing
the complaining were those to whom today’s second reading was addressed. These
were Christians of Hebrew background living throughout the Roman Empire. Their
fellow Jews had ostracized them. The pagan Romans were sporadically persecuting
them. The original apostles were all dead, most of them killed by the Romans.
And it seemed that each new leader of a Church in this or that city,
particularly in Rome, were given a death sentence by being made bishop. Eleven
of the original twelve were martyred. Ignatius from the second largest city in
the Empire, Antioch, had been fed to the beasts in the Colosseum. The first
thirty-one Bishops of Rome, the first thirty-one popes, were put to death. Now
there were rumors that Christians would be persecuted throughout the empire.
The people to whom the Letter to the Hebrews was addressed also complained that
they couldn’t join in with the festivals of the people of their country. They
were told that they couldn’t be Christians and live like pagans. So these Hebrews
complained.
“Knock it off,”
says the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. “Shore up your drooping arms and
firm up your knocking knees.” Their body language showed how they felt. Stop moping around, Hebrews says. Instead, trust in God. If you are called to be a witness to God with
your life, it will unite you closer to Him than you could ever imagine. Only
a relative few would become martyrs in that way. Most of them were called to
give witness to Christ by the way they lived their lives.
So, would this
living of the Christian life be easy? No, nothing worthwhile is easy. Everything of value has its price! In
today’s Gospel, Jesus called the price the narrow gate. The narrow gate is not
the popular gate, but it is the only one that leads to God. Many people choose
the wide gate, the way that everyone seems to be going. These are the people
who justify their immorality with the “everyone’s doing it,” mentality. Many
people think that they can ignore God throughout their lives that they can
avoid sacrificing for others, that they can live in their selfishness. Simply
put, they choose to live like pagans. They assume that God will not reject them
when their lives come to an end, but they forget, they have already rejected
God. They are not on the inside of the
Banquet Hall because they have chosen to
be outside the Kingdom of God.
We cannot be the
people of the wide gate. We have been given the call, the grace, to enter into
God’s presence. But the way to get there is not easy. The gate is narrow. It
demands sacrifice. It demands saying “No” to our own lower instincts. It
demands saying, “No”, to the popular but immoral crowd.
It is sad how we
recognize the work necessary for the physical necessities of life, but we
refuse to recognize the work that is necessary to attain the reason why we were
created. We think that the goal of our lives, union with God, should be easy. We
recognize the hard work that is necessary for a person to become a lawyer or a
doctor...
We need to
embrace our Christianity with enthusiasm. We need to stop complaining about our
sacrifices and look to the Cross of Jesus Christ. The book of the cross is the
wisdom of the Christian.
We are
Catholics. We are Christians in Christianity’s purest form. We have purpose and
meaning and beauty in our lives. We have Jesus Christ. And He has us. Our arms
cannot be drooping. They need to be raised high in praising the One who calls
us. Our knees should not be knocking.
They need to be high stepping, marching through that narrow gate to our
God.
Then, when it
comes time for the final Banquet of the Lord, when our lives come to an end, we
will find ourselves inside, united to Jesus at the feast of Love that is the
Eternal Union with God ■
[1] Sunday 25th
August, 2013, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Readings: Isaiah 66:18-21. Go out to all the world and tell the Good
News- Ps 116(117). Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13. Luke 13:22-30 [St Louis IX. St
Joseph Calasanz].
