Aloha to all on this Tuesday of the 12th week of ordinary time!
You are all a sign of God’s grace and love!
As the gospel talks about today, there are two gates, one is wide, the other is narrow. It is much easier to go through the wide gate towards death and destruction than it is to go through the narrow gate towards life and happiness with God. There are two gates, one that is open, one that is closed. There are two gates, one that is locked and one that is unlocked.
Let us search for, find, and enter the narrow gate of love and compassion that Jesus offers us! Amen!
Scripture:
“You alone are God over all the kingdoms of earth. You have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! That all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.” (2 Kings 19)
“As your name, O God, so also your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth.” (Psalm 48)
“I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.” (John 8)
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. Enter through the narrow gate. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7)
A Reflection by Fr. Brian:
In America, we have what people call “gated communities”. I spent many years in California where there are many such “gated communities”. To get into these “gated communities” you need a pass code. But, today Jesus talks about another kind of gate, a gate that is very narrow. It is like needing a pass code. And that pass code is necessary to enter into life with the Lord. Indeed, it is a narrow gate! Because that pass code is love and compassion, which, for some, is easy and for others hard.
It’s like a gate that at times swings open and at other times swings shut.
Let us enter this narrow gate through which life in God is found, and not the wide gate that leads to sin and destruction! Amen!
Blessings, pono and pule!
Fr. Brian Guerrini, ss.cc.
Priest
Molokai