21st Sunday

There are all sorts of questions, trivial and more important, and there are also questions on which our future, our life, depends…. Today in the Gospel we hear a question put to Jesus: “Will there be only a few saved ?” The salvation question. For modern people probably very surprising. Today, we tend to ask about wellbeing, health, work, future plans, somehow avoiding the question of who and whether they can survive at all. Very often our thoughts revolve around the temporal, the struggles of a difficult everyday life. As if we forget that here and now we are forging our future in eternity. Have you ever thought about whether, by living as you are currently living, you are on the road to salvation? What questions do you ask God in prayer?

It is also significant in today’s Gospel that Jesus does not directly answer the question posed in this way.  Tight doors, again the great demands Jesus makes on us.

You have to start by getting to know God, establishing a relationship with Him, one that is personal. Many people know God only by hearsay. They have heard that He is merciful, so they think He will forgive their sins anyway. They have heard that it is in the Church, but they claim that the Church is an institution, it is only the clergy and they do not need it for salvation. Many people say that all you need is to be good, have God in your heart and that’s it.  No one or nothing else is necessary for their salvation. What if we listened to Christ and his Gospel…. Jesus does not say in the Gospel that he who is good will be saved, but he who eats his body and drinks his blood.

It is worth realising this when listening to all those who claim to be able to cope with life on their own, that it is unnecessary for them to go to Mass, the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, to meet Jesus in the Eucharist, in essence the Church.  Christ wanted the Church to exist and to the Church he left the means needed for salvation. The fact is, in order to be saved you have to be good, to be just, but the strength for this justice, for doing good, also has to come from somewhere.  He alone gives this strength, He alone leads and is present in His Church and in it you can meet and know Jesus. Am I leaning on Jesus in my life? Am I relying on Him, or is it only the good that I believe comes from me? What is my opinion of the Church and the presence of Jesus in it…?