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THE NARROW GATE
![The Narrow Gate that Leads to Eternal Life](images/narrow-gate.jpg)
“Lord,
will only a few people be saved?” He answered them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for
many, I tell you, will seek to enter but will not
be able.” (St. Luke 13.23-24)
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So
many of us look for some esoteric meaning in the words of Christ,
a meaning hidden beneath the surface, beyond the obvious, and we
pride ourselves that we are clever in having understood it in light
of some obscure aspect of history, archeology, or Semitic culture.
We delve into the construction of walls and buildings, look to artifacts,
cultic practices, and so forth.
In other words, we look everywhere to find the meaning of what
Jesus says ... except in what Jesus says.
In our obsession with the “hidden”, the “secret”,
the “real” message obscured by, and cleverly concealed
within the words — we completely overlook the obvious. It is
too simple for us, too transparent for our “sophisticated”
minds – we are far more clever than these simple Jews from some
obscure province of Rome.
At Mass today, many of us will be guided through the intricacies
of the construction of the walls surrounding the Holy City of Jerusalem,
with a special emphasis on “the Narrow Gate” (kheta) and
the “Eye of the Needle”. The priest will presume that we cannot
understand the obvious apart from the obscure, and by focusing upon,
by belaboring the obscure, he will successfully elucidate the obvious.
After our architectural lesson, we will all warmly congratulate
ourselves on how clever and insightful we have subsequently become.
Now we know all about the Narrow gate: how wide it is, how encumbered
camels cannot pass through it, that it was a security measure, albeit
primitive, to prevent the mass influx of an enemy that may possibly
lay siege to Jerusalem; that it was so high and this long – oh,
by the way, and in conclusion ... Jesus was using the Narrow Gate
as an analogy that has something to do with sin and salvation; however,
by now I am unclear about the point of the analogy ... “how many
cubits high did you say it was, and a cubit equals how many
feet?”
At this point I must make a confession: I do not know how wide the
gate was. I do not even know how wide a camel is. What is more ...
I have no compelling reason to find out — and, I suspect, neither
do you.
But I do know that both the Gate and the Camel are really beside
the point — and so do you.
You know what Jesus is saying.
We know, but we wish to quibble. “Well, what if it was a Llama
instead of a Camel? And does the parable presume the camel's having
three days supply on it, or four,
in order to prevent it's passing through the gate?”
The point is that the parable is not about a camel .... or even
about a narrow gate!
It is about you!
It is about your soul making its way to Heaven. Of course Christ
used parables, but He also spoke in strikingly clear and unquestionable
terms. This is one.
Why should this be important to you?
Because He tells you that many will attempt
to enter but will not.
Why? They will be busy measuring the gates ... instead of striving
to walk through them.
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
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editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
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Totally Faithful to the Sacred Deposit of
Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti
verbum Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power,
and yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My
Name.”
(Apocalypse 3.8)
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