Jesus is asked, “Will there be only a few saved?†The reply that He gives is unnerving: many will truly not all be successful. Jesus also goes on to say that people from all over the world, from many nations, will come and there will be places for them. In other words there are places in the kingdom of God for the many, not the few.
Jesus tells the disciples to try their best to enter by “the narrow door.†In the Greek of the New Testament, the word used for “try your best†actually means “to wrestle.†It involves struggle and effort. The question for each of us is: what do we need to wrestle with?
Today’s Gospel is ultimately not about exclusion but about inclusion – there is space in the kingdom for many, and that includes those we struggle to accept.
This is not easy; and that is why Jesus calls us to wrestle with it, wrestle with our conscience, with our prejudices, with our own arrogance and self-righteousness. When we cannot do this, we may find ourselves facing the closed door. We receive the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, on Sunday, so that we may be Christ’s body in our world during the rest of the week. As we receive the sacrament, we are called to act as Christ would act in out world.
Being the face of Christ to those we find most difficult to like or love is the narrow door through which all of us are being invited to pass.
There are plenty of people in our own neighborhood, in our own community, who need us to be the face of Christ. To love with the love we have already received ourselves.