The Narrow Road: 21st Sunday Ordinary Time 2010

For ten Sundays now since June 17, 2010 (12th Sunday in Ordinary Time), I have been doing short sharings in a TV MARIA station (channel 160 in our Sky Cable provider) program entitled: Salita ng Dios, Salita ng Buhay aired every Sunday. Actually, the program is shown daily with different SVD priests sharing, at 7AM, 12nn and 6PM Philippine time. Salita ng Dios, Salita ng Buhay appears to be a translation of the SVD Bible Diary published every year as a help in understanding the Word of God in order to strengthen our Christian Catholic faith. The title of the SVD publication is Word in other words. The pattern of the publication is such that after the Gospel for the day is made, one of the SVD (Priest or Brother) or SSpS (Blue Sisters) or SSpSAP (Pink Sisters) religious shares a reflection. The program opens with a Welcome Greetings, Opening Prayer, Reading of the Word of God, Sharing, Closing Prayer and blessing. Having this blog, I thought of publishing here what I share in there. I use Tagalog in the TV program; here let me use English. Maybe I can put it into Chinese as well for the sake of the Chinese readers.

Allow me to start this project here.

The texts of the Word of God are as follow:

1st Rdg - Is. 66: 18-21
2nd Rdg - Hb 12: 5-7, 11-13
Gospel - Lk 13: 22-30

The evident topic for this Sunday is about SALVATION. The 1st Rdg speaks of the plan of Yahweh to save His people. In the Gospel, as Jesus was going around the towns and villages on His way to Jerusalem, he was once asked if there will be many (or not) who will be saved. The answer of Jesus was not a categorical YES or NO in response to the inquiry. His answer came with an action word: "STRIVE to enter through the narrow door."

To understand what SALVATION is through the image of the NARROW DOOR, it might help to envision it as against a WIDE ROAD. Here in Metro Manila, the widest road I have ever driven is the Commonwealth Road which I usually take when visiting friends on that side of the metropolis. Before it is the Elliptical Circle, which used to be called "Epileptic Circle" when it was on construction many years ago, due to the potholes that almost made traveling feel like an epileptic attack. In these wide roads, driving is fast though careful. Everyone gets to speed up amidst the constant caution one needs to make to avoid an accident and reach one's target destination. There seems to be an "I DON'T CARE" (carefree) attitude as one drives the lanes, overtaking the others, ensuring one gets there safely.

The NARROW DOOR may be compared to any one of two-lane roads wherein one lane gets occupied by the construction debris - as when the canal has to be cleared in preparation for the floods, or when the water lines and electric cables have to be checked every now and then. Right in front where the obstruction is a device that stops the use of the said lane. All drivers passing through the road have then to squeeze themselves into the only lane available. The Skyway has a bottleneck portion as one reaches Alabang, and sign says it clearly: ALTERNATE passing only. All drivers passing through the bottleneck needs to slow down, anticipate the other with care to avoid an accident and to let the other pass ahead of oneself. There is thus in this image the picture of the STRIVING we need to make. The personal, careful rather than carefree attitude is shown. No matter how slow, traffic keeps on moving.

The image of the NARROW DOOR or LANE thus provides the spirit of our striving: with care and concern for the other, which does not become evident in the fast lane WIDE ROADS of carefree-attitude and speed.

To strive to be saved - that belongs to us. That we want to be there too in heaven - that belongs to us. I remember a spiritual guide who once said (was he St. John Bosco?) "Pray as if everything depends on God, but work as if everything belongs to us." Saving belongs to God; being saved belongs to us. I remember during my regency in Tefuyeh, a remote mountain village of the Tsou tribe in Chiayi, Taiwan, my neighbor, a teacher of the tribes passed away. His house was just across my room. In between us was a road that went to the higher area of the village, and this man's house sat atop the edge of the cliff overlooking the parish Church just opposite my room. I heard from the villagers that he was not baptized. Many of the Christian churches there, including the Catholic Church, invited him to be baptized, which he refused. Death overtook him before he could be baptized. The question dawned on me: will he be saved? What shall happen to him? I raised these questions to my supervisor-priest Fr. Anton Weber, SVD. His answer never left me: "That now belongs to God." Indeed, saving belongs to Him. What we are left behind is the STRIVING to be saved.

In our STRIVING, to be baptized is the first Step to salvation. It is the sacrament of our INCORPORATION to Christ. We belong Him as He belongs to us. We are INITIATED into the family of God, the Church. In adult baptisms, the person baptized makes a PERSONAL, CONSCIOUS choice to believe Him Who saves. In the baptism of babies, like most of us had, our parents and godparents had us belong to the Church just as they already belong to the Church.

As we grow in Christian life, another STRIVING we make is through understanding our faith. One of the experiences that can strongly convey this journey towards understanding our faith is when we are disciplined, when God corrects us, perhaps through suffering and pain. The second reading says it clearly: "Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every child he acknowledges." Hence, we are to "endure trials as discipline. (For)God treats you as His children. For what child is there whom his father does not discipline?"

Allow me to share some pictures I received in the email with the subject: "Why boys Need Strict Fathers... (Por que los peques necesitan de padres que son estrictos)"








Without a strict father, danger and death are just lurking in front of us! Salvation may be too far without our understanding why!

If we still cannot understand how God saves, I pray the Holy Spirit gives us His wisdom and enlightenment so we can understand and STRIVE to be saved! May the Lord bless us all. Amen