TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
24 AUGUST 2025
Saint
Luke begins his Gospel in Jerusalem.
Jesus is presented in the Temple as an infant, and Simeon and Anna
rejoice to live long enough to encounter the Messiah. In Jerusalem, at the age of twelve, Jesus is
lost in the temple. His parents
frantically look for him for three days until they find him listening to the
teachers and asking them questions. He
leaves Jerusalem with his parents to grow up in Nazareth with them. Saint Luke ends his Gospel in Jerusalem with
the death of Jesus on Good Friday, his resurrection on Easter Sunday, and his
Ascension.
That is why
it is important to recognize that Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem in today’s
Gospel. He teaches people and invites
them to become his disciples to join him on his journey. That journey will end in Jerusalem, where he
will be betrayed, forced to endure an unfair trial, and be crucified like a
common criminal. He answers the question
about the number of people to be saved by responding, “Strive to enter through
the narrow gate.” He is inviting his
disciples, and all of us who call ourselves Christians, to walk the same
journey with him and be formed by the journey.
That journey will include sharing his cross and trusting that striving
to enter the narrow gate of his cross will lead to his resurrection.
At this time of the year, parishes are
resuming the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. That is happening here. Those who have never been baptized or those
who have been baptized in another Christian denomination will begin the process
of becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. There
are four parts involved in this process.
Participants will live in love within a community. They will be engaged in listening to the
Word, not only at Mass but also in their sessions. They will learn how to participate in
outreach and service. If they persist in
OCIA, they will worship God in spirit and truth.
These four aspects are part of the
journey of faith for each of us. We
continue to learn to live in love within this parish community. We are engaged in hearing the Word of God
every Sunday, or every day if we come to daily Mass. We are constantly challenged to become more
involved in the outreach and service of our parish, especially in reaching out
to the poor and marginalized. When we
gather for Mass every Sunday, we worship God in spirit and truth.
As all new Catholics will learn,
and as we ourselves have learned, walking with Jesus on this journey and being
formed by it is not easy. We encounter
arguments and disagreements within the family of the Church. We can suffer from ill treatment at work,
when we choose to buck a system of doing what is minimally required and pour
ourselves into what we are supposed to do.
Young people can be treated unfairly by teachers or coaches. Friends can betray us. When we choose to participate in the veiled
humor of racist language or the gossipy rumor going around, we will share in
the cross of Christ. Sharing in the
cross of Christ is part of our being formed by our journey with him.
The author of the Letter of the
Hebrews is aware of the sufferings that disciples must endure as we are formed
by our journey with Jesus Christ. The
author urges us to regard our crosses, our failures, and our disappointments,
and our pain as “the discipline of the Lord”.
The Letter argues that the Lord loves us and strengthens our resolve as
disciples to continue our own pilgrimage with Christ to the New and Eternal
Jerusalem. Referring to the question
asked of Jesus today, we need not worry about how many people will be
saved. Instead, we can focus on our own
response to follow him and strengthen our resolve to strive to walk as Jesus
did, knowing that encountering his cross will be a definite part of our journey
with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment