SERMON : People Like to blame their circumstances for what they are

Our readings for the twenty-first Sunday explain salvation as a result of extraordinary perseverance and endurance of many trials. We find this in the following readings: Isaiah 66: 18–21; Psalm 117; Hebrews 12: 5–7, 11–13; Luke 13: 22–30. The Gospel in a special way, warns us against presumption and the idea of cherishing an easy salvation. Salvation, says Jesus, must involve the hard work of collaborating with the grace of God day after day, until the last day of our lives. Taking it for granted is missing the point: It is both a task and a mission. In the Gospel, a man whose intention is clear approached Jesus and put to him the following question: “Lord, are they few in number who are to be saved?” Of course he wanted to elicit a sympathetic answer from Jesus like: ‘Oh, do not worry, everybody will make it son’. On the contrary, Jesus answered: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’” With this answer, Jesus’ intention was not a threat, but a challenge to both his listeners and the rest of us. The way of life to which Jesus calls us requires change, conversion, effort, renunciation, and apostolic zeal for the salvation of others always paying attention to what would be a Christian moral code. And this already poses a big problem because in our modern culture we seem to be losing the sense of sin as we adopt so many ways to explain it away. We always want to put our freedom at the forefront leaving less room to our responsibility. Popular psychology teaches us that everything we do wrong is either someone else’s fault or the result of conditioning or impulses we cannot control. We are victims of the conditions beyond our control. Shall we in the end put aside completely our personal responsibility? Unfortunately this takes away our enthusiasm as well and it makes us victims of life’s blows. That is why Jesus is telling us to do all we can in order to remain in control or our own life, because life’s blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed at the fire of enthusiasm. On the other hand, it is amazing to note how people all over the world are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. Why should we exaggerate the importance of circumstances? History has proved that the people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them! To blame it all on circumstances beyond our control is a clear sign of weakness. The point that Jesus was driving home in his answer above deals with the role of our free choice. It is our moral choice when we say that this is good and that is bad which will make us in turn a certain kind of person, either good or bad. It is not enough to say that our intentions were basically good, that we didn’t mean any harm after all. No, our actions must be consistent with our new condition as children of God in which we are constantly invited to “make every effort to enter through the narrow door”. Here Jesus meant a life which is demanding especially as our personal moral code is concerned. To reassert a kind of morality, a sense of behavior, that differentiates intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad or wrong. That way we would have the courage to say no even when that means taking the narrow and uncomfortable path. This would save us from taking the high-way, where we over speed only to get lost. Jesus was therefore guarding us from the kind of rationalizations which call for an “easy Christianity” which may certainly obscure the fact that true Christian life is a struggle. And there is no reason to get discouraged; as the saying goes, with ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. Ends