Twenty First Sunday of Ordinary Time

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” (Luke 13:24)
 
When I travel I always over pack my suitcase. It’s a habit that I can’t seem to break.
 
You see, there are things I know I will need, things I will most likely need and things that I really don’t need but take anyway – because you never know and, in some way, it makes me happy having everything with me.
 
My wife says I have a problem and she’s probably right because I will come to regret having to drag a heavy suitcase around wherever I go. It becomes a tremendous burden, getting it in and out of the car, checking it in, keeping it from tipping over as I roll it from one place to another and trying to get it through doorways without crashing.
 
My friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus is near the end of his public ministry. He is making His way to Jerusalem. The place where He will first make a triumphal entrance and just a few days later be arrested, put on trial, beaten and eventually crucified.
 
In His divine wisdom, Jesus knows what’s coming and the closer he gets to Jerusalem, the more urgently He teaches about salvation. Along the way, someone approaches Him and asks, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” It’s an interesting question. But, it’s the answer Jesus provides that really gets my attention.
 
The first thing Jesus tells us is the entrance to the Kingdom of God requires some type of effort. Before I continue, it’s important to understand that grace is not opposed to effort. It is, however, opposed to the attitude that it is something that can be earned. That’s a significant distinction.
 
Listen again to the words of Jesus:
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” The word “strive” in this context means intense exertion. It literally means to “struggle” or to “fight”.
 
So, I thought about traveling with my over packed suitcase and how I struggle to get it through a regular doorway. There’s no way it’s going through a narrow gate.
 
My dear friends, Jesus is the narrow gate and the strength I need isn’t for trying to get my suitcase through the gate, it’s the strength I need to put it down and leave it behind. To let go of those things that slow me down or prevent me from following Jesus – from truly loving God with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength.
 
I have good news and bad news.
 
The good news - we’re all seeking unconditional love and perfect happiness. Since we are created by God, it’s woven into the fabric of our heart and soul. Whether a person knows it or not, our one true desire is to return to God.
 
The bad news - while we sense within ourselves the “hunger” for God, we often attempt to satisfy it with something much less than God. (Adapted from Bishop Robert Barron) We tend to fill our suitcase with things that we think will make us happy and in reality they become our burden.
 
It is so easy to try and satisfy our burning desire for unconditional love and perfect happiness by trying to make wealth, pleasure and power our ultimate goal. While these are the things that often get stuffed into the suitcase, they are only “substitutes” for God and the happiness they may bring is only temporary.
 
Now, I understand the desire for wealth. Being financially secure certainly seems like a legitimate path to happiness. It’s part of the reason why I get up and go to work every day.
 
In our culture, there are many people who believe if they just have enough money in the bank, a big house, nice cars and a luxurious lifestyle, they’ll be perfectly happy.
 
The reality is, after our basic needs are met, no amount of money or material possessions can fill our desire for unconditional love and perfect happiness. It won’t work. Just as an object will tarnish, break or wear out, the feeling of happiness you get after you get something you want always fades over time.
 
We hear story after story of how the pursuit of material wealth, for its own sake, leads to unhappiness, corruption and even death. As my Grandmother used to tell me, “Money makes a good servant but a terrible master”.
 
Deep down, we all want to experience pleasure and it’s more than just “eat, drink and be merry” or even “sex, drugs and rock and roll”, it can also be the pleasure derived from other activities like being with friends and family, spending time in nature, watching sports and listening to music.
 
Experiencing pleasure is just a side-effect of a particular activity that we engage in. The activity can be something healthy and good for us or something dangerous and even deadly.
 
Regardless of what we do, that wonderful feeling we experience eventually goes away.
 
Power is something we all want to have. In the United States, it’s often associated with freedom.
 
Does this sound familiar?
I want to do what I want, when I want and how I want. And, I don’t want anyone or anything to get in my way.
 
Power can also be the influence or authority used to get others to do what you want them to do. Many people who are making headlines in the news seem to be obsessed with maintaining or trying to gain power.
 
However, power can’t be used to gain unconditional love and perfect happiness. You can’t force someone to love you and true freedom is really the ability to do what is right.
 
My friends, the temptations to achieve wealth, pleasure and power, as an ultimate goal, have been around forever. I invite you to go to your Bible and re-read the story of how the devil tries to use these them to tempt Jesus in the desert. There are other examples from the Bible, throughout history, in the current news and perhaps, in our own lives.
 
Our secular society will tell you, encourage you and even show you how to fill your suitcase with as much wealth, pleasure and power you can get. This way of thinking is all around us. It’s incredibly attractive and so easy to believe it’s the way to perfect happiness.
 
One of my spiritual heroes, Bishop Robert Barron, puts it this way:
“When we try to satisfy the hunger for God with something less than God, we will naturally be frustrated. In our frustration, we will convince ourselves that we need more of what we think will make us happy, so we will do whatever it takes to achieve it, only to find ourselves again, dissatisfied. At this point, panic sets in and we can find ourselves obsessing over something that can never make us happy.”
 
This obsession is what becomes greed and addiction. The quest for wealth, pleasure and power will always leave us wanting more.
 
St. Augustine said it best. “Lord, you have made us for yourself. Therefore, our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
 
My dear friends, “the gate is narrow precisely because it is in the very shape of Jesus Himself”. To find unconditional love and perfect happiness, to find salvation, is to participate to the fullest degree possible in the very life of Christ - to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength, to love your neighbor as yourself and, yes, to even love your enemy, to recognize the gifts we’ve been given come from God and are meant to be used in a way that helps us return to God.
 
“It’s a surrender to grace and allowing this grace to flow through us into the wider world”. (Bishop Robert Barron)
 
This is no easy task. It can be a daily struggle and, for some, it’s minute-by-minute.
 
The entrance through the narrow gate is found through love, humility and service. It requires us to pick up our cross and follow Jesus…and you can’t do that with your hands full dragging around a suitcase. Amen.