SUNDAY, TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Is 66:18-21 Ps 117 Heb 12:5-7,11-13 Lk 13:22-30
IN WOUNDING HE HEALS
Christ is our sublime model upon whom we must pattern our life. His only desire was to do the will of His Heavenly Father. St. John of the Cross counsels that anything which is not purely for the honour and glory of God should be renounced. The sacrament of Baptism washes away original sin but there remains the tendency to sin. God cannot force the free will of the individual. When a person makes an effort to choose good, God purifies the person in the crucible of trials and temptations – a kind of discipline of a loving Father towards his children. As St. Augustine says, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. In order to find this rest, the human heart goes in search of all things that come on the way. In this craving for satisfaction there develops in human heart many inordinate appetites. According to St. John of the Cross, to reach union with God the soul must mortify within itself all voluntary inordinate appetites for creatures or things since these appetites are contrary to the perfect love of God and consequently to union with God.
The readings of today invite us to submit ourselves to the loving discipline of God who created us. It is not only the Jews or Christians whom the Lord will gather to himself, but every person who sincerely seeks Him. Many will come from east and west to share the banquet of his kingdom. In the first reading of today, through Isaiah, God promises to gather all the nations to himself. This is the Good News of salvation not only to the Israelites but also to every person belonging to a different race and language. The truth of the only true God will also be revealed to every nation as it was first revealed to Israel. In the history of Israel, we see that often the Israelites strayed away from God and sought after foreign gods and pleasures to satisfy their hearts. Instead of satisfaction, they received only pain and tribulation for their cravings. God in his mercy, however, worked out salvation through these sufferings when they returned to him with repentant hearts.
The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that God is our Loving Father. He disciplines us just like our own fathers, who love us. “My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves the one he loves, as the Father the son in whom he delights” says the book of Proverbs (3:11 12). This proverb teaches us that divine discipline is inspired by divine love. Without this wisdom one might mistake the trials of life such as persecution, as the signs of God’s anger hammering down for every fault and failure. On the contrary, God is a wise and caring Father who desires only to make his children better. To remedy their sins and selfishness He sends difficulties to train them in righteousness and to raise them to spiritual adulthood. Christ himself learned obedience through suffering! (c.f. Heb. 5:8).
What is all this discipline about? We find the answer in the Gospel of today. Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching the commandment of love. Salvation depends first on God’s grace, then on our cooperation and obedience. Jesus here stresses the difficulties of the spiritual life, where few will enter God’s glory while the door remains open. We need to do our best to squeeze through this narrow door. He rebukes the impenitent who are shut out from God’s blessings and describes the pangs of the damned who weep and gnash their teeth. Does Jesus want to frighten us by these words? Not at all! He is treating us as adults and telling us the truth about all that happens in this life and the next. We need to travel this path by faith alone. However, Jesus knows that we are weak, hence, from the cross he gave us a companion and guide in this journey: “Behold your mother.” Let us be determined to take Mary, the mother of Jesus and our mother, to live with us, that she may lead us on this journey towards life eternal.
Response: Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.
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