Usually we attribute ‘avoiding the question’ to politicians, who are adept at talking around a question without really giving a straight answer. Since I listen to sports talk radio, I think coaches, general manager and players are all really good at this as well. A good example is that Herm Edwards, the coach of the Chiefs, has spent weeks talking around the question of who his starting quarterback will be this year. I don’t know if you noticed, but in today’s Gospel, Jesus Himself never directly answers the question that is posed to Him. He is asked, ‘Lord, will only a few people be saved.’ By the end of the Gospel, we do not have a direct answer to this question, only an exhortation from our Lord to strive to enter the narrow gate. Unlike a politician who is trying to avoid the question, however, Jesus instead tells us what we really need to hear. It is clear from his response that we are supposed to avoid the nonsense of looking sideways at those around us like we do when we’re playing bingo, trying to predict whether we will have the winning ticket in the game of chance. Jesus tells us that if we engage in the nonsense of looking sideways, we will never be strong enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. Many, the Lord tells us, will attempt to enter, but will not be strong enough. The criteria of today’s Gospel is strength. Do we have the strength to enter the narrow gate, to be baptized in the baptism with which Jesus was baptized? Do we have the strength to conform our lives to the mystery of the cross?
Parents who never discipline their children are rightly criticized. It is hard for a child to grow in virtue and in strength if everything is handed to them, just as it is hard for any athlete to become stronger without rigorous training. Grandparents, on the other hand, are a different story. Grandparents can also discipline children, and help parents to raise children, but just as often, grandparents play the role of the sugar daddy. Our relationship with God is probably a mix of these two roles – God is a grandparent, having mercy on us a thousand times faster than He condemns, and lavishing gifts upon us. But God our Father is also a parent; He does not want us to be spoiled but to grow in strength. He wants us to compete well in the battle against evil; He wants to teach us how to win the battle against sin.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews puts this idea of God’s training us, his children, as bluntly as any other author in Sacred Scripture. My son, says the author, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him, for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. The spiritual wisdom here is profound. The author challenges us to think that when things are going well for us, and when it seems that God is blessing us, there is a great possibility that our faith is growing weaker. When things go according to our expectations, it may actually mean that God is leaving us alone, and woe to that man whom the Lord does not acknowledge.
The author of the Hebrews discourages us from seeking a peace and a happiness that comes simply from getting life arranged the way we want it. Instead, the author invites us toward a peace and happiness that comes from God helping us to become stronger, so that we may enter the narrow gate of which Jesus speaks. And this strength does not often come to one who prays that nothing new will happen and that things will stop changing. Instead, the strength comes to the one who prays that things will keep changing, and that whatever kingdom we would attempt to build in this life would be taken from us, so that our hearts may truly be set on the things of heaven.
The exhortation from Jesus and from the author to the Hebrews is not an invitation for us to go looking for suffering. Discipleship is not masochism. Instead, the exhortation is a reminder for us to not lose heart, nor to lose faith, when the cross of Jesus Christ comes by. We must have more strength that those who blame God for any misfortune or injustice that befalls them. We must have more strength than those who look for a new Church family whenever things get difficult. We must have the strength of the beatitudes, which show us how to truly rejoice when our kingdom here on earth is being broken apart, for the trials of this life will strengthen us and prepare us to enter the narrow gate, and to enjoy the rewards of heaven!
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