Twenty-First Sunday of the Year

Heaven can’t wait!

Jesus warns us today that there is a difference between association and intimacy, between being a colleague and being a friend, between being a relative and having a relationship. There is a difference between lip service and follow through, between lips and hearts, between words and deeds.

Spiritual sloth and indifference – classically referred to as ‘acedia’ - are real temptations because the Lord seems to be taking His time!  Jesus challenges his hearers today who have a false sense of security, those who commit the sin of presumption, like an athlete who feels certain of a medal but who is beaten by an underdog who comes out of nowhere and defies the pundits. Jesus warns us against complacency! The narrow door is the door of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven and how few find it!

This might lead us to speculate like the disciples with the question ‘will only a few be saved?’ I like the retort of the priest in the USA who answered the same question in to a phone in show on EWTN when he said ‘I’m into sales, not management!’

The image changes from the narrow door to the locked door, from ‘time is short’ and tight space to ‘time’s up’!  There are a lot of phrases that are very final and on which there is no going back on them. ‘Sale agreed’, ‘site sold’, ‘concert tickets sold out’, final whistle’, ‘all aboard’, ‘time is up’, ‘flight full’, ‘gate closed’, ‘no vacancies’,  etc. And how we hate to be caught out, to have dallied and our delay is costly. A wasted opportunity, a huge potential saving, or a real bargain fell through our fingers and right before our eyes!

Our problem, like that of Jesus’ hearers, is that we have too much presumption and not enough urgency.  We cannot say we weren’t warned, or that we didn’t have enough time to answer the question as is an exam. Instead of apportioning blame we must assume responsibility.

We can all identify with the concept of bouncers and security who scrutinise the would-be entrants to a night club or concert with checks for valid ID, passes, with appropriate attire and sobriety and ‘not likely to cause trouble’ as opposed to those who are inappropriately dressed, drunk and disorderly who are excluded. It is not enough for those in line to say ‘I know the owner’, or 'I am related'. The door is shut and a conversation behind a closed door is strained at best, but it is too late. There is no heavenly entry based on ‘who you know’.  Nothing can replace personal effort. To have been associated or related is no guarantee at all. 

With all the talk of disqualification at the moment or even of athletes being stripped of their medals from previous Olympics, it might be worth pondering what we are doing to qualify for heaven!

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The opening ceremony of the Olympics is always exciting because there is so much colour and excitement associated with seeing all the proud youthful smiling fit athletes representing their country.  At the ceremony everyone’s a winner, or a potential winner, and while notable athletes are identified you never really sure who will take home the gold or any other medal for that matter.

All nations are represented, and indeed it is a good analogy for heaven – we are told in the readings that people from all nations will be represented in the finals as it were – in the final selection of athletes representing each country there were those who were not fit or failed to qualify, or those who sent home. A final selection had to be made based on fitness and performance in the also four years.  All sorts of criteria of fitness apply, and this may be the only or last Olympics for some.

We should be concerned about our qualification for heaven rather than idly speculating how many get there at all.  

On the walls of heaven and hell will be the words ‘SOLD OUT’.

In heaven it will refer to places ‘sold out’ by those who purchased a place there by the holiness of their lives. In hell it will refer to the occupants too –but the words on the wall will be ‘these are the people who sold out’.