The readings for today have some unnerving descriptions of those who think they have a straight path way to God, but….there is -

• Talk of narrow doors that it is hard to pass through,

• many who live as enemies of the cross of Christ, their God is the belly, their end is destruction

• Of those who will stand at the door and knock and God will say, I do not know you… depart from me you workers of inequity…. And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

• Behold your house is forsaken.

So often we talk of God as the God of love and mercy, of endless desire for us to return to him, but these descriptions may make any of us a little nervous.

Context – Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to face his death. There is a sense of urgency in Jesus that his hearers take his message seriously. Paul likewise has this tone of warning. However each begins with an invitation bracketed by the warning – Paul says, join in imitating me… and ends stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. When asked if those who will be saved be few ( obviously someone is paying attention to what Jesus is teaching ), Jesus says strive to enter by the narrow door.

The words of St. Paul and Jesus all point to the initial Covenant which God makes with Abram. Covenant is a relationship of mutual commitment and our part as Abrams is to trust God with all our heart and strength. This is a narrow door through which it is difficult to walk given the pull of much about us to seek a wider door, an easier door which expects little of us and in essence replaces the expectation for us to live into a belief in the power and providence of God with the assumption that the relationship shouldn’t be too stressful otherwise it may not be worth it.

Jesus weeps over the city which holds the image of being God’s city because he sees a population of people who believe they are entitled to God’s love because they are, after all, God’s people and Jerusalem is God’s City with God’s Temple. It is in their mind an indestructible place and there is little expected of them. As many of your know I am a Duke Basketball fan. This year has not been the best for Duke given their great success over the last decade or so. Coach K. supposedly told this team, at a point when they were playing particularly poor that putting on the uniform did not guarantee them to be winners, they have to work at it just as every other team has had to do.

Jesus jars his hearers with the warning that nothing is guaranteed, just because your name is on the roles that is not what it means to have a covenant with God. Abram was the example because while he lived through many hard and undoubtedly terrifying circumstances he trusted the ultimate faithfulness and goodness of God. A nice story, but a challenging way of life ( a narrow door ).

A while back I was with a family whose sister was in danger of dying. They were a close, supportive family, with an obvious faith in God that seemed to sustain them even while they were fearful and grieving over their sister’s fragile hold on life. One sister said, “ I know God is able to spare her, but I also know he will do what is best for her and that he will help us accept that even if we have a hard time with that now. Several of them uttered in responsorial style, “ Yes – God is Good.” I was touched by the true depth of their trust in God. It wasn’t naïve as they knew that if they lost her it was going to be very hard – they would grieve deeply because they loved her very much. They exhibited a strong sense of who held their lives and that God is Good. While I may not share all of their belief that God is behind everything that happens to us, I certainly appreciated the strength of their conviction that they belonged to God who they believed would see them through whatever they had to face.

One focus of Lent is the attention we are bid to give to the encumbrances in our thinking and behavior which block our ability to love and trust God, to live so that Christ may live through us. This weekend a group of men from the parish took part in a retreat and one of the meditations we did included focusing on that which clutters our lives, particularly in our relationship with God. One of the observations of Joyce Rupp, a Benedictine Sister, whose meditations we were using, was that even good thinks can become clutter as they become distortions.

Fr. Benedict Groeschel speaks of the image of Christ we create in ourselves and assume it is the original, the real thing. A flick of the radio dial will reveal to us that there are many differing images of Christ which are held. Many of those who the church calls Saints have warned that Christ, God, is beyond our comprehension and expectations. Like the disciples we are often taken by surprise when we let God lead the way in our lives, often not knowing how his way can be good. For here the focus is on Christ, whom we must follow to the foot of the Cross. From the foot of the cross we see the mystery of God’s love poured out for us and for all.

Here we see the mystery of a vast reconciliation bought if you will at the price of Christ suffering, it is the pain of God endured so we can know to trust the narrow way. When we shed the stuff we may so treasure in order to fit through the narrow door, there to be embraced by the Father and hear,

“ this my child was lost, and is found.”

Amen.