We are in need of salvation
HOMILY FOR TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF YEAR C
Fulton Sheen, the American bishop from the last century known for his preaching on radio and television, said we will have three surprises in heaven. The first surprise: We will be surprised to see that many people we expected to be in heaven are not there. The second surprise: We will be surprised to see that the people we never expected to be in heaven are there. The third surprise: We will be surprised to see that we are in heaven! Because our getting to heaven is principally God’s work, we should be surprised that God somehow “went out of his way” to save us, simply because we showed the good will and generosity to cooperate with his grace.
By saying that we need to enter heaven by a narrow door, Jesus is saying we need to give our whole lives for it. Why should we think we can just enter heaven automatically? Rather, the Christian life is a constant striving to do the will of God as Jesus revealed it. It is the way of discipleship. We need to strive because there are forces of evil within us and around us, trying to pull us down.
The first reading seems to be in contrast with this message in the Gospel. The reading presents us with an expansive, inclusive view of salvation. The prophet Isaiah envisions people streaming into Jerusalem from “all nations” with offerings for the Lord. He says that some of the Gentiles, that is those who are not Jews, will be chosen as priests and Levites. And actually, part of the Gospel passage has this same theme. Jesus says that people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will sit at table in the kingdom of God.
Most people, at least at some stage of their lives, and most probably many times, wonder about salvation. We all ask the question, “Will I be saved?” Or, we consider what we must do to be saved. We all know the fragility of
life. We have known and loved those who have passed from this life. We wonder what happens to us after death.
Let’s be frank and say that today’s Gospel reading is pretty harrowing. Surely none of us can listen to this passage and not feel uncomfortable. Surely as we heard it, we were a bit shocked, unsure, or at least thoughtful. There are those words that the master speaks in the parable: “I do not know where you come from. Depart from me all you workers of iniquity!” And then there is the image that Jesus uses for those excluded from heaven: he says that there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. We have to admit that is pretty horrible stuff.
This hard saying of Jesus is prompted by the question someone asks, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus answers by speaking about a narrow door which many will not enter. He then paints a frightening picture of some, who thought they were doing just fine, that they ate and drank in the Lord’s presence and heard him teaching, who are now standing on the outside begging to get in. Meanwhile, people they thought less of, or despised, are inside, enjoying a great feast.
Anyone who ignores Jesus’ warning does so at great risk. Every individual Christians must confront, in the greatest seriousness, the possibility of his being lost. Jesus’ warning about the narrow door, the possibility of being left out, comes down to this: Our present life is a serious business - and the stakes are enormous. In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis expressed it like this: He said that people often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, ‘If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll punish you’. But C.S. Lewis said that that is not the best way or most helpful way of looking at it. Rather, every time we make a choice we are turning the central part of ourselves, the part of ourselves that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.
And taking our lives as a whole, with all our many choices, all our lives we are slowly turning this central thing into a heaven creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge, and power. To be the other means madness, horror, selfishness, rage, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.
The first step in heeding this warning of Jesus about the possibility of hell, is to recognise that we are in need of salvation. When look at ourselves seriously, each of us knows that we are not complete in ourselves or of ourselves. We know that we are capable of great deeds of destruction and selfishness, as we also know that potentially we can do much good. We find that we are capable of destroying our happiness and the happiness of others, of hindering our progress as human beings and our progress to God. In short, we need salvation.
We can be clear on a few essential truths. The first is the universal salvific will of God. God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). The salvation of God offered to all ‘who call upon his name’ (Acts 2:21; Joel 2:32). This is our hope and our encouragement. This is the good news in the midst of the harrowing warning that Jesus gives us today.
The second essential truth is the sobering one. God has also given human beings free will and with this priceless gift comes the possibility of rejecting God. With this free will there must be a possibility that some human beings will freely reject the love of God. This, essentially, is hell.
Putting these two truths together we say that it is necessary for human beings to make a decision to accept this salvation which God offers to all of us and wishes all of to have and actively cooperate with God’s saving work in us. The decision can be for this salvation or can be to reject it.
There are two extreme responses to salvation, neither of which are true. Either we can presume salvation, and this presumption is a deadly error; or we can despair, we can give up hope of salvation. To recognise that each life will end in salvation or damnation should make us sober – but not sad. Our confidence is not the result our few puny efforts. It comes from knowing our need for, and experiencing divine mercy. It comes from cooperating with God’s grace. Over-confidence and presumption about our salvation will do us no good. But we have reason to live in hope. If it is true that no one can save himself, it is also true that God “desires all people to be saved”, and that for God “all things are possible.” (Mt 19:26).
A few years ago I had the privilege of visiting the monastery of St Teresa of Avila in Avila in Spain. There, I saw the place on the staircase where, she unknowingly came across the Christ-child, who asked her name. She replied, “Teresa of Jesus”. St Teresa had taken her name as a Carmelite nun with this title. And she asked the child who he was. He replied, “I am Jesus of Teresa.” In this simple story the whole of the Gospel is illustrated. Jesus wants to be Jesus of “me”, Jesus of “you” ... insert your name. His life and mission was to make this possible, to make our salvation and union with him possible, to make heaven possible for us. Can it be said that you or I are “of Jesus”? What kind of openness and giving ourselves to God would be needed to make this true?
Today’s Gospel is a solemn warning for our own good, out of God’s love for us. He wants us all to be saved. The message we have heard is an urgent call to conversion.
