BetterYouLiving, Instagram, October 30, 2024.

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[Jesus said], Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.            Luke 13:29-30.

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Once in a while the Sunday Scripture reminds me of incidents in my life which, in one way or another, have made a deep impression. Today’s gospel is one of them. Picture it, summer 1967. In my last year of college in London I had become aware of an organization which offered graduates of “technical” subjects an opportunity to work abroad for a few months. My London degree is based on economics and geography, which qualified. I was offered positions in France (requiring fluent French), Germany (German) and Sweden (English). Remarkably enough I chose Sweden. Tailor shop in Stockholm or bank in Gothenburg (Sweden’s second city)? Where can one hide in a tailor shop? The bank please. I was told to arrive at the bank to pick up the key to my rooming house on 24th June, a Friday. Now remember those of my age, that all suitcases at that time were hand held, heavy and quite painful. I arrived at the railway station in Gothenburg (Göteborg, sounding something like “Yūterboree” in Swedish) on midsummer day, baking hot, clear blue sky. A public holiday…. But my letter from the bank clearly said 24 June…. I found my way to the bank, which, of course, was tight shut, with no-one around anywhere. At that point the handle of my suitcase broke and I had to carry it as if embracing it… Oh my – today’s Scripture floated up in front of me “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” Amen brother! Despondent, just like the people in today’s gospel, I miserably struggled down the lane alongside the bank, and there was the narrow gate! With bell door button! Of course it was pushed and behold, the door opened! There was a young man there, taking care of the bank on a holiday weekend, actually answering the doorbell (this was clearly 1967 not 2025 when that would be unthinkable). I stammered out my desperation, he calmed me down, took me in, and we looked for any rooming house key lying around (none), and so he said his family could put me up for the weekend! Thinking of all that, I wonder if the Lord had such situations in mind? Well I had obeyed the bank’s instructions to the letter (just like we try to follow Scripture), despite a (Swedish pen-) friend actually telling me (tempting me?) that it was a public holiday in Sweden, but it was there in my letter in black and white – 24 June. I had resisted all inducement to reject the word (of the bank, not Scripture in this case), and had been saved! And by Monday I had a family base in a new city!

Of course I know that all this was sheer good luck and goodwill rather than religious conversion! But in today’s gospel we are offered a road map to the gates of heaven, and we know now exactly what to have to do in order to be invited in. There is no luck there, just a life lived in accordance with God’s plan. When the gospel says “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets” and yet we have been excluded from entry into the kingdom, clearly there is a message there. Yes, they recognized Jesus’ presence among them (as we do today) but clearly have not undertaken the responsibilities required of a true Christian on a daily basis. Yes, eat and drink with the Lord – but were you charitable with the less fortunate? Did you help others as much as you were able? Were you seen as honest and generous with your time and your skills? Did you forgive when that was necessary? And so on and on. That is what gets entrance through the narrow gate!

And then there is the second reading about the discipline needed to achieve that goal. We are born into this world brand new. We have not the slightest idea of who we are, what we are and what it is all about. We know when we are hungry and uncomfortable, and that’s it! That’s the starting point for each one of us, and then the training begins, outlined in today’s second reading, which seems to be a tad sexist – are sisters and daughters exempt from this training? Er – no. And then there are  different schools of thought when it comes to discipline, but one thing is certain – it is critical and essential. And it is from our parents that almost all of us learn the basics. Hopefully they are good. If not, then we have a lifetime to learn better and correct any faults we may have learned from them. There is an extremely scurrilous Philip Larkin poem about exactly that which I won’t even name or point you to. But bear in mind that we all come to a time when we are totally responsible for who and what we are, and that will get us through that narrow gate – or not.

The first reading seems to suggest that all people are destined for this regime. Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan being – or once were – the limits of the Mediterranean area, essentially the “world” for most biblical peoples at that time. We are all taught at the earliest age what is essential and required for peaceful, communal living on some level but once those basics have been mastered we start taking control of ourselves. It is at that point we become aware of a greater reality than even ourselves and take the first step for or against recognizing it. And that reality seems to be reflected in today’s first reading,  So in a way we are all subject to this pattern of growth and development. Today’s readings, then, seem to be a huge mirror handed to us, and we can look at it and perhaps calculate where we stand in reference to ourselves, to others and to God. And what we intend to do about it.

The Last Judgement, Jean Cousin, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

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