21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C (2019)
 
There are four little words that no one ever wants to hear—not when you’re  dating or married [or employed].  In fact, I’d bet that most people dread them. 
 
And the reason is very simple— they usually signal that something very bad is going to happen.  And when we hear them, shots of adrenaline begin coursing through our veins. You know what those four words are: We need to talk.
 
In my experience, usually not much good comes from those four words—because they usually catch the person off-guard.  He or she is often completely surprised. 
 
How is it that one person in a relationship can be so convinced that things are going badly, and the other person feels that things are totally fine?  How can two intelligent people be on completely different wavelengths; have significantly different assessments of the same situation? 
 
My guess is when someone doesn’t see the break-up coming, it’s because they haven’t been paying attention; they’ve grown complacent; they’ve stopped caring.
 
Someone asks Jesus today, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” His response: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”
 
That’s a scary question. Jesus doesn't answer it directly. It almost like he’s avoiding it as if the answer is just too discouraging.

The words “many will try to enter, and fail” are troubling. What percentage? How many? Why so few?
 
Nowadays, we like exact statistics. Jesus doesn't provide any, but we get the impression that the possibility of failure is very real.
 
Who will fail? Probably, people who don't take him seriously; people who don't try hard enough; people who love something more than they love Jesus.
 
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that many people are not much interested in Heaven anymore because they reject many of its values here on earth: generosity, fidelity, chastity, integrity, compassion.
 
And then there is us, the Church, who often choose not to endure any type of persecution or trials or rejections related to our faith—a faith that is compromised or watered-down, denied or flat out rejected.
 
And it all comes down to this simple question: “Lord, what are my odds of getting through that gate?”
 
The truth is— no one loves us more than Jesus, and yet, no one in Scripture spoke more of judgement and Hell than he did. Why? As an urgent warning about the seriousness of our choices.
 
A life for, in, and with God does not happen purely by accident.  Rather, it comes about when we strive to “be the best that we can be”—when we strive to embrace and live as the authentic person God calls us to be. 
The gate is “narrow” not because God wants to keep us from the kingdom, but rather it is narrow because a life of faith in relationship with Jesus involves living in a particular way, thinking in a particular way, and seeing in a particular way. 
 
And finally, those of us of a certain age will remember a very popular ad campaign from a few decades ago.  For over twenty years we saw commercial after commercial showing men and women in uniform performing all sorts of challenging tasks—both physical and technical. 
 
And while we watched these images a song played in the background—a catchy tune that contained one of the most famous slogans in advertising history.  You remember what it is, right? Be all that you can be . . . in the army!
 
Here’s my hope that keeps me going. When I truly strive to “be the best I can be” when it comes to everything God calls me to be:  generous, faithful, chaste, honest, compassionate— then I can be (humbly) confident of every good thing awaiting me when God takes my hand and leads me through the narrow gate of the kingdom which is the only entrance—just as the Cross is the only means of our salvation.
 
There is a God who loves us and wants to spend all eternity with us and who desires to speak four simple words we should never fear: “We need to talk.”