Homily for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Luke 13:22-30)

 by Fr. Azam Vianney Marsha, CJM - STL 

I was a cradle catholic. In other words, I have been raised in our Catholic faith since birth. In my college years, I encountered a group which told me that only 144,000 (one hundred and forty- four thousand) will be saved and they showed me a passage from the Book of Revelation to support this claim. I immediately believed them and started attending their prayer services. As we gathered together every week to pray and pray and pray, (which is perfectly fine with me), I realised that there was something missing: “What was the fruit of all my prayers?”

During this period in time, I entered the seminary (another long story full of divine providence and mercy). That was when I started reading the Holy Bible religiously. This, together with seminary formation, helped me to encounter the two passages which changed my understanding and passion for prayer.

The first passage comes from Jesus Himself in the form of a parable; namely, the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (Luke 13:6-9). The owner of the vineyard went to look for fruit but could not harvest any for three years. He chose to cut the tree down, but the gardener wanted to give it another chance with the condition that if the tree did not bear fruit, then it would be cut down. To “bear fruit...” That stuck to my head! “To bear fruit” means to pray, which is a perfectly good action, but what does prayer actually bring to the people of God?

The second reference comes from the Letter of St. James, which helped me to understand the teaching of Jesus: “Strive to enter through the narrow door.” He wrote to the community of believers the following: “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith (James 2:18)

Certainly, our salvation comes from God as a gift - χάρισμα (Charisma, Romans 5:15-16). It is something that we cannot earn. However, Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (Luke 13:24). It is not a choice given to us; but rather, it is a command. In other words, do not just stand there looking at it, thinking about it, complaining about it and at the end just say, “Sola fide (only faith)! God will save me!” We have to remember that Jesus said, “STRIVE.”

STRIVE in Greek is “αγωνίζομαι” (agonizomai), which stands for “to fight or to struggle.” When Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow door,” it is a command to do your share in carrying out acts of mercy in order to show your faith in God. This is because God lives among His people. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus emphasized on the importance of striving. Zacchaeus, the tax collector, for example, tried to see Jesus and so he climbed a sycamore tree.

When Jesus asked him to come down so that he could visit his house, he immediately came down and took Jesus into his house. Even though Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house, he still did not receive the gift of salvation. BUT!!! Do you remember when Zacchaeus opened his mouth to express his faith in Jesus through his acts of charity? He said... Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much (Luke 19:8) Jesus saw Zacchaeus striving and in response to this, Jesus did not only give him the salvation, but the gift of salvation was also given to his entire household: Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost (Luke 19:9-10).

In the Parable of the Last Judgment, the King invited all those who were striving to enter into the Kingdom of God. These were people who strived to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, cloth the naked, visit the sick or those in prison, and accommodate the stranger (Matthew 25:35-40). Indeed, striving is an action in which faith and works go hand in hand. As a bird needs two wings to fly, a person needs to strive to pray hard and to act on it.

Now going back to the passage from the Book of Revelation where 144,000 (one hundred and forty-four thousand) saved souls are mentioned. Actually, this passage is often interpreted out of context by our Christian brothers and sisters. If we go through the whole passage (Revelation 7), we will see that an innumerable multitude and an uncountable number of gentiles were clothed in white robes standing before the Lamb. In other words, those who are actually standing before Jesus Christ in heaven are those who believed in Him and strived or put great effort to practice his/her faith through good works while they were here on earth.

May Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, intercede for us so that we can strive to live our faith in Jesus Christ through our prayers and deeds.