21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Jesus comes across as very hard hitting. When he says that the Kingdom of God can only be entered through a narrow door, he makes it seem like the Kingdom of God is an elite club, into which only a few manage to make it. Yet, the whole of Jesus’ preaching seems intent on doing away with the elitism that has characterized the Jewish conceptions of who gets to enjoy God’s favour. How are we to understand this paradox?

In order to try to understand our gospel today, I would like to take an example from our own Jesuit life. Several years after their ordination, Jesuits are invited to profess final solemn vows. These vows are a recommitment to the three simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that a Jesuit would have already taken at the beginning of his Jesuit life when he completes the novitiate. However, for some Jesuits, final vows are not just an opportunity to recommit to the three simple vows they first professed as novices, there is an invitation to profess a fourth new vow, one of special obedience to the Pope. Not all Jesuits are invited to take this fourth vow. It is only those who are men of outstanding virtue, who show a high degree of zeal and aptitude for the mission and who are perfectly available to be sent anywhere. Certain posts of leadership within the Society of Jesus are reserved only for those who have four vows. As you may guess, those Jesuits who get four vows are considered a cut above the rest, and inevitably those Jesuits who only get three take it as a slight and are often very bitter that they were not considered worthy to take the fourth vow. Some go and complain to the Provincial, arguing that they are just as worthy as others to get four vows. For this reason, it is often slyly remarked that those Jesuits who are willing to accept three vows, happy just for the privilege to serve humbly as ordinary Jesuits, and not aspiring to hold the grand positions of leadership are precisely the ones who should be given four vows. On the other hand, those Jesuits who believe that they deserve four vows, and who would become bitter and angry if they only received three vows are precisely the ones who should be given three vows. The key difference between these two groups of Jesuits is one of humility. Those who believe that they deserve four vows are puffed up with their own ego and are not small enough to fit through the narrow door that gives entry to the Kingdom of God. It is only those who are humble enough to believe that they might not be worthy of four vows who have left enough space in their spirits for God to use them in the mission who are truly deserving of four vows.

This is what Jesus meant with the words “the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” Those children of Israel who believed that they alone were worthy of God’s love and favour would probably struggle to fit through the narrow door of the Kingdom of God. They were the ones who thought that their entry into the Kingdom of God would be based on their own merit. It was the prostitutes and the tax collectors and indeed the pagans who knew that they had no personal merit to rely on for entry into the Kingdom of God who were small enough to fit through the narrow gate of the Kingdom of God.

Space is not the only limiting factor that determines entry into the Kingdom of God. There is also the limiting factor of time. Not only is the door narrow, but we are also told that there is a time when the master of the house will rise and shut the door, and those who wanted to get in, but delayed in coming would be shut out. Once again, this image of God as the master of a house who refuses to let late-comers in must be rather jarring to those of us who are used to the image of God as a merciful and loving Father. Another anecdote might help us better understand how this image is operating.

Fr. George Smiga was parish priest of St. Noel parish in Willoughby Hills, Ohio. On the day after 9/11, many people came to church to spend time in prayer. As one woman was leaving the church he said to her, “I am glad you came today to pray. We all need prayers.” “Some more than others,” she said. “Do you want to know who I was praying for today?” “Of course,” replied Fr. George, and the woman responded: “I was praying for all the spouses of the people that died in those twin towers who left for work yesterday morning angry at their husband or wife. They always thought that there would be time to make peace. They always thought that there would be another opportunity to be reconciled. Yet there was not. They will have to live with that for the rest of their lives.” God is always longing to bring us into communion and to reconcile us with those we have wronged or who have wronged us. God wants to hold the door open for as long as possible in order to allow us the time for a conversion of heart. But there is a time that the door will shut. We only have a limited amount of time to reconcile with those who have wronged us, and what is possible today may not be possible tomorrow. We only have a limited time to do the good that God calls us to do. The message of this parable is “carpe diem” – seize the day – and do not wait to enter through the door that leads to right relationship with God and with our neighbour.

Questions for reflection

1. What is the narrow door that may be closing soon that God calls me to enter through now?
2. Do I look down on others who I consider less holy than myself from a position of self-assured Christian entitlement?