“Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.” For the last several weeks, the Sunday Gospels from our “Year C” cycle of readings have been challenging. The evangelist Luke has placed Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. When he gets there, he will be crucified for what he is teaching. Through the parables and teachings that Luke shares with us from the Jesus on the road to crucifixion, Luke describes what it means to be a disciple.
Discipleship asks a lot of us, just as Jesus’ own fidelity to his Father asked everything of him. Not everyone will be “strong enough” to “enter through the narrow gate” by living as Jesus taught. Not everyone will be able to resist the allure of worldly riches, the teaching of our Sunday Gospels several weeks ago. Not everyone will be spiritually strong enough to work for the common good instead of only “my good,” a message of last week’s Sunday Gospel.
It takes discipline to be a disciple — the two words are related. We hear that discipline message in our second reading today, from Hebrews. That reading ends with a “chin up” exhortation: “So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.” Jesus taught us disciples how to live our human lives, but his words are an invitation to follow him, not a free ride on a discipleship train to heaven. We need to practice discipleship — to live out his words to our best ability in our daily lives. And when we fail, the good news is we can start again the next moment, or the next day, with His encouragement and love.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post August 24, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Narrow Gate: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.