Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts today. + Come, Holy Spirit. +
Let me tell you a story about Bob and Burt. Bob and Burt were buddies and loved spending time out on the ocean together. Bob had a large, sturdy yacht and loved having Burt join him for long voyages. There was a small inflatable dinghy on the yacht and Burt became a little obsessed with it. He had a survivalist streak and enjoyed taking the dinghy out on the open ocean to see if he could last on it. He became so comfortable maneuvering on the small boat that he began to tell Bob, “You know what, I bet that I could do just as well as you out here using just the dinghy. Just give me some basic food and supplies and I will live off this little boat for a few days.” Reluctantly, Bob granted the request.
The first night Burt was navigating the dinghy close to the shoreline of an island and he hit a rock. Realizing he didn’t have a patch among his supplies, he shot up a flare to alert Bob, who was on the yacht nearby. The next day, Burt went out again on the dinghy, confident that he could last for a couple days on his own. But once again, a flare went up. When Bob got Burt back onto the boat, he simply said, “I saw a fin in the water and panicked.” On the following morning, Burt once again asked Bob for permission to take the dinghy out. But Bob said, “Read this first,” and handed him his phone. On the screen was a news article with the headline, ‘BOAT CAPTAIN FOUND DEAD IN DINGHY AFTER THREE DAYS LOST AT SEA.’ Burt gave it back to him and said, “I get it. I don’t want to become a headline.”
Jesus uses an image in the Gospel reading today that should make us think. He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” For those of us with a familiarity with the Gospels, it is easy to see that Jesus is speaking of Himself as the narrow gate. That is because we automatically connect this saying of Jesus from Luke’s Gospel with the one from John’s Gospel, where He very explicitly says, “I am the gate.” But let’s try for a moment to put ourselves into the shoes of those listening to Jesus during his public ministry all those years ago. His first followers didn’t have the convenience of the Gospels we know and love, because they hadn’t been written yet. So when Jesus tells them to strive to enter by the narrow gate, they may not have immediately understood that He meant himself as the narrow gate. This follows Jesus’ pattern of teaching by parables and images, where He invites us to grab onto the story by pondering what the different elements stand for and mean. Jesus allows us to learn His lessons by thinking, not just by listening.
Jesus uses the image of a narrow gate because it shows us that we are not just made for any gate, but for a specific gate. He also reminds us that it requires strength to enter this gate: “…many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” I think that as they thought about it, the people who were originally listening to Jesus realized that everything He was preaching and doing was showing them that He Himself was both the narrow gate and the one who would strengthen them to enter through Him. Think of all the wonderful things He had been doing. His preaching was so powerful that Peter told Him, “You have the words of eternal life.” Not only does Jesus speak the words of eternal life, He also shows by His actions that He is divine. He calms the storm with a word, He raises Lazarus from the grave with a word, He forgives sins with a word, He heals people just by touching them. Everything that Jesus does and says proclaims that He is the narrow gate by which we can have eternal life, and that He can give us the power to stay close to Him and thus enter that gate – which is Himself – when we come to the end of our earthly pilgrimage. As people experienced Jesus, they came to see the truth that He was and is the way, the truth and the life–He was and is the narrow gate!
The ultimate sign that Jesus is the narrow gate is the fact that He defeated death, as He Himself predicted He would. Jesus rose victoriously from the grave and commissioned the Apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. And He specifically entrusted Peter with tending and feeding His sheep. He called Peter and his successors to be the ones to lead the sheep to the narrow gate–Himself!
This brings me to my story from the beginning. It illustrates for us the power of the Catholic Church to lead people through the narrow gate, Jesus. Our Church is blessed with an abundance of gifts that flow from Jesus Himself: the fullness of truth proclaimed throughout the ages by the Church and protected by the authority Jesus gave to the Apostles and their successors; the power of the Sacraments, which give us God’s life in powerful ways and help us to live in Jesus; and the communal life of the Church through which we can learn to live and pray together and thus help each other stay close to Jesus. Some of these elements are present in other Christian churches and communities, but we truly recognize them in their fullness in the Catholic Church, founded on Jesus and by Jesus, who said, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”
In my story, that powerful yacht is an image of the Church. It is sturdy and has what is necessary to brave the ocean. The dinghy represents those who are Christian brothers and sisters not in full communion with the church. They can make it, they are floating, but there are elements they lack. This is not to downplay the good things that God does in the lives of our non-Catholic brothers and sisters. It is just to recognize that there is a fullness to what Jesus offers us through the Catholic Church.
In the Church, even with all of its flawed members and sometimes even more flawed leaders, there is abundant, powerful grace that flows from Jesus Himself to strengthen us. It takes great strength to resist the temptations that the world, the flesh and the devil throw at us. But through Jesus’ abundant grace, we can make our way through the difficulties and temptations of life.
Let’s ponder today how well we’re remaining “on the boat,” so to speak. Are we doing what we can to stay rooted in Jesus through prayer, the Sacraments, and solid friendships in faith? Or are we taking our chances out on the waves by ourselves? Let’s pray that we would take a step today to remain with Jesus and to walk with Him, so that one day we will have the strength to enter through Him to the fullness of life in Heaven.
+ Father, thank you for sending Jesus to strengthen us and lead us to You. Jesus, please help us to trust you so that we can have abundant life in you now and the fullness of life in Heaven. Holy Spirit, help us recognize those areas in our life where we are straying from Jesus, the narrow gate. Give us the courage to repent and turn back to Him. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +