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The first reading, from Isaiah, is about God’s great desire to gather the Jewish people who were conquered and deported to Babylon. But that desire of God is too small, for God wants to gather all the peoples of the world together. What’s happening to the Jewish people is not just for them but for everybody. That reading ends with universalism, that the temple of Yahweh will be the centerpiece of all the world. It’s not to be a tribal religion but a universal religion. By the 2^nd century the Christian church began to call themselves Catholic which means “universal.” These 2^nd century Christians recognized that what God was doing in and through them, God was doing for everybody. 

Today’s gospel starts with someone asking Jesus, “Will only a few be saved?” Maybe you have pondered that at different times in your own life. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who’s going to heaven? Who’s going to hell? Will only a few make it? Will I be one of them? Jesus encourages them. He’s basically saying, “Take your spirituality seriously; take your faith journey seriously.” Salvation is an urgent question, not a light-hearted question. 

This could be considered the narrow door. When we wake up, we might ask, “How can I be as loving as possible today?” That might be the narrow door. If we take our spiritual journey seriously (and not just for an hour on Sunday), we will get in touch with what motivates our lives. That’s a good starting point. Many will try to enter but will not be strong enough. Jesus says, “The master will lock the door.” So, now we are starting to get scared. 

At this point it sounds more like a message of exclusion than inclusion. Are we being invited or excluded? A number of saints have said no one is going to hell unless they want to. God sends no one to hell unless they choose to live in evil, hatred and disharmony. It’s always our choice. Now from our side it looks like God is kicking us out, but the wisdom of the ages say we only kick ourselves out. If you want to live in heaven or you want to live in love, they are the same thing. It’s your decision, and that’s the narrow gate. 

Pope John Paul II said in 1999, “When will Catholics realize that heaven and hell are not geographical places? They are states of consciousness.” If that’s true, then some of us sitting in this room right now are living in hell. You’re hateful, negative, oppositional, you love to pick fights, you love to exclude other religions and races, etc. That’s an attitude of hatred and that’s hell. That’s right now. St. Catherine of Sienna said, “It’s heaven all the way to heaven, and it’s hell all the way to hell.” You’re choosing right now: Do you want to live in love and communion with God and neighbour or live in a world where you justify your anger, your self-righteousness, where your religion or your race is the only real one? Whenever we try to make another religion, another group of people “unworthy” in an attempt to make ourselves “worthy,” in that moment you are living in hell. 

A lot of people who call themselves Christians are living in hell. That’s why it says, “Many of you will knock at the door and say, ‘we ate and drank in your company,’” just as we are about to do here in Eucharist. Jesus is saying it’s not about belonging to the right group. It’s not about being in the right place, in Israel, but it’s about having the right attitude. And that crosses all boundaries of group. As you know there are many Moslem people, Jewish people, Protestant people, even atheists who are much more in love and serving their neighbour and doing volunteer work for the poor than Catholics. Let’s just be honest about that. Catholics are much more known for attending church than for volunteering to help the poor. That’s exactly what Jesus is saying salvation is not. It’s not about belonging to the right group and eating and drinking in God’s company. 

And he rightly says there will be great regret when you realize how wrong you were, how deeply you missed the point. He describes it as weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see everybody else. And the clincher is when you see people you were so sure would not be there and, darn it, they are there and you’re not. 

In other words, be ready to be surprised about who is in love, about who is living a life of love and service and who isn’t. It’s all summed up in the great and final punchline, “Remember, those who appear to be last, will be first.” And don’t be too quick to think you’re first, because you might just be last. I think this keeps us all humble and searching. And it makes us recognizing it isn’t even any of our business. It’s none of my business, it’s none of yours. Take it out of your mind about who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell. It’s not your concern; that’s the work of God, God who is continually making the impossible possible.

Fr. Phil Mulligan