Dear Parishioners,
Things are not always what they appear to be. This old and familiar truth captures the heart of today’s Gospel. St. Luke tells us: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate,” and ”For behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.”
"Appearances” can be very subjective because they depend primarily on our sense of sight, and sight can be quite limited. If there are two ways to accomplish a task and one requires less effort, thought and resource and the second requires more effort, thought and resource, most of us would strongly consider the first — the path of least resistance. But as we hear so often from the scriptures, Jesus does not see the world as we see it. What may seem to be the more difficult path may truly be the one Jesus wants us to take. We may ask, why would Jesus want us to take the hard path? The answer is simple— He knows where it will lead (and we don’t). He knows what is ultimately good for us, whereas we are limited in our ability to assess what is good because we can only make decisions based on what we know. So we must rely on faith.
And the second familiar quote: “For behold some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last” — this may be a little more challenging to understand, but again only God can judge a person. God’s eyes see with divine wisdom — not human wisdom.
So where does this leave us? As with all things, we do our best to live our lives as Jesus would live — we make decisions that we think Jesus would make, and we persevere with the kind of patience when things are not what they appear to be, with the patience that Jesus would have.
Difficult? Yes. But Jesus asks us to try. If we follow the recipe outlined above, we are doing what we can to achieve the happiness that awaits us when we pass through that wonderful narrow gate.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Lito