Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Lord is going to Jerusalem, and he is going to fulfill the will of the Father. What is the will of the Father? It doesn’t say it in the gospel, but you know what it is. That all men be saved; this is the will of God. He does not want to condemn anyone. God’s will is that all men be saved and this is why this question is asked of Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” In the end, God wants everyone to be saved but are only a few saved, or some are saved, or all are saved. We are very selfish and don’t care if the other guy is saved. We want to know if my family is saved and outside of my family who cares, it doesn’t matter to me.
This is why we can have a little question in mind when we hear the answer of the Lord who said “strive to enter by the narrow gate” but how can there be an effort if salvation is always a grace? No matter how hard we try we cannot change our heart, no matter what we do or how hard we try. But there are some things we can do, and the Lord speaks very concretely of them. The key to this gospel is in the last sentence: the last will be first and the first will be last.
I don’t know if there are many here who consider themselves the ‘last ones’ or probably more who are here think they’re the ‘first ones’ and therefore there are many behind you. There are many different levels that we can speak about. There is the social level, the economic level, the education level and there are many who will be behind you, which means that you are among the first; be careful that you don’t become one of the last. When we have achieved something, you can believe that you can also obtain salvation.
The Lord is speaking primarily to Jews, who are the chosen people. They believe that they are the special ones, the gifted ones and they don’t give a damn about the others. They are the true ones because they are the chosen people, and you also can feel like the chosen people. You can have a Jewish heart; you can be pharisaical. It is not very difficult because I always go to church, and I am part of this group. There are always two ways to skin a cat. When there are two people who are truly saints. I take my hat off for this one who has faith, but the other ones are fanatics. They do not convert nor allow the others to convert. This is what the Lord says of the Pharisees. We need to be careful because we believe that being part of this group I am already saved. What surprises we will see when we enter the Kingdom or maybe we will not be surprised since we are not going to enter the door. What surprises there will be because the Lord says clearly, the first will be last and the last will be first.
To try, to strive to changed one’s heart is useless. You cannot change your own heart because the only one who can change it is the one who created it, which is the Lord. But there are some things you can do like we heard recently that take a little effort. For example, you can sell your goods and give alms. The alms is not how much you have already saved, or have you truly saved them for the Lord or for yourself? The gospel says blessed is he who is rich in the sight of God, not rich before men.
To be the last is to be the one looking for humility. Did you know that St. Francis paid people to insult and humiliate him in Assisi. When he was walking around and giving a talk, they would insult him, humble him. He would ask these people he paid to insult him in public; let them know who I am. Tell them I am arrogant and a thief. A Polish seminarian said the last time he was home he was called a pedophile while he was walking in the street, and he was not paying them to do so. He humiliated him for free. This is striving for humility: wanting to be the last one at work, the last one in your house, not always to be right, or not to have the last word with your wife or husband.
The first reading from the last chapter of Isaiah speaks of gathering of nations, those on a pilgrimage who proclaim the glory of God. He says it will not be only the Jewish people who are brought into communion with God. Foreign nations will also be called to worship the one God in Jerusalem, and even some of them will be priests who are not Levites. God knows our works and our thoughts.
There are some things we can do to strive to enter this narrow gate. Be a little one, one who is humble, who serves the others, to be tenacious. You never think that you are going to die. You live as if you will be immortal, but you are going to die. You say, “Yes, of course, I know that.” Well then live like you may die today. What would you do if you knew that? You would reconcile right away. You would convert right away. You would be generous today because you can die tomorrow. We don’t know. I am not trying to scare you, but it is important to remind yourself of this fact.
Touch the back of your head and you will feel your skull and one day it will be totally clean and smooth. Don’t worry if you are bald or if you have wrinkles or that your hair falls out. So, should we eat and drink today because tomorrow we die? No, little brothers, let us convert for tomorrow we shall die. Let us become a little one so we can pass through the narrow gate. If we are not little we cannot be with the Lord. He made himself the least among the brothers and put himself in the last place. Christ is not found in the first place, only in the last place. That is why a great number of saints found Christ among the poor. They understood that Christ is among sinners and to be in the last place is to be in the Kingdom.