" Do your best to enter by the narrow door;

for many, I tell you,will try to enter and will not be able."

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Isaiah 66:18-21

 Now I am going to gather

The nations of every tongue, and they will witness my glory, for I will perform a wonderful thing among them.  Then I will send some of their survivors to the nations – Tarshish, Put, Lud, Moscheck, Rosh, Tubal, and Javan – to the dis­tant islands where no one has ever heard of me or seen my glory.

They will proclaim my glory among the nations. They will bring your kindred from all the nations as an offering to Yahweh on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, on camels to my holy moun­tain in Jerusalem, says Yahweh, just as the Israelites bring oblations in clean vessels to the house of Yahweh. Then I will choose priests and Levites even from them, says Yahweh.

 

Ps 117:1, 2

Go to all the world and tell the Good News.

 

＊＊＊ 2nd Reading ＊＊＊

Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13

Do not forget the comforting words that Wisdom addresses to you as children: My son, pay attention when the Lord corrects you and do not be discouraged when he punishes you.  For the Lord corrects those he loves and chastises everyone he accepts as a son.

What you endure is in order to correct you. God treats you like sons and what son is not corrected by his father?  All correction is painful at the moment, rather than pleasant; later it brings the fruit of peace, that is, holiness to those who have been trained by it.

 Lift up, then, your drooping hands, and strengthen your trembling knees;  make level the ways for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but healed.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

  Luke 13:22-30

 Jesus went through towns and villages teaching and making his way to Jerusalem.   Some­­one asked him, “Lord, is it true that few people will be saved?”

And Jesus answered,  “Do your best to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.  When once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you will stand outside; then you will knock at the door calling: ‘Lord, open to us.’ But he will say to you: ‘I do not know where you come from.’

 Then you will say: We ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets!   But he will reply: ‘I don’t know where you come from. Away from me all you workers of evil.’

You will weep and grind your teeth when you see Abraham and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside.   Others will sit at table in the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south.  Some who are among the last will be the first, and others who were first will be last!”

 

Gospel Reflection：

 Jogging God’s Memory

Read: Isaiah prophesies the restoration of all peoples under one God. the letter to the Hebrews urges us to view trials and sufferings as God’s corrective. Jesus speaks of entering through the narrow gate.

Reflect: Jesus says: “I do not know where you come from .” Matthew puts it bluntly: “Ｉnever knew you: depart from Me” (cf. Mt 7:21-23). Could these words be directed to us who have celebrated many Eucharists (dining with Christ) read the Bible regularly (listening to him), preached and attended many retreats?

How frightening would it be when these words come from God Himself, who has said that He knew us before we were even formed in the womb (cf. Jer 5:1), that He knows us by our name (cf. Is 43:1), and that our names are written in the palm of His hands (cf. 49:16)!

If our words of faith have not become flesh in us, Christ simply does not see his image and likeness in us. the best way to jog his memory is by walking the narrow way of doing the will of his Father. it guarantees that we are counted as his family, and who fails to recognize one’s siblings (cf. Mt 12:50)?

Pray: “: Lord, in Your Wills my peace.”

Act: Make an act of faith.