Image by David HaywardToday's prophetic Gospel warning (Luke 13:22-30) challenges Christian believers to seek and learn "the honest truth about Jesus" (Dei Verbum: Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, 19). The narrow door is a person, Jesus, who invites us to walk through him to serve whomever and whatever meets us on the other side of the portal. We need our daily quotient of bodily food and spiritual matter to meet the required goals. That also means that if we see someone who is deficient in one or both of those necessities to have life to the full, disciples of Jesus are required (that's not a request) to share our daily quotient with that person. How do we do that? One person at a time and one day at a time. No service is too small, no kindness or compassion shown that grace does not multiple ten thousand times through the goodness of God.
Heaven comes to earth as a gift when we place ourselves at grace's disposal and walk through the person of Jesus, who is the narrow gate. Entitlement gives way to joyful and difficult service if we profess Christian discipleship. The Word speaks very clearly today in a counter-cultural directive to believers in every age. Unless we embrace a paradigm shift that moves us from a shared meal with Jesus to a radical change of life that results in service to the world, we will not establish the relationship that we need with Jesus to meet the hard labor of Christian discipleship. That's the real deal.
The Gospel is clear in its priority of the poor, which includes a myriad of peoples. Service is not a yoke that Christians bear out of fear. Servitude (not a popular word!) is a privilege offered to disciples of Jesus who bear witness to the grace of God at work within every moment of every day.
That's the honest to God truth about the narrow gate who is Jesus.