Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Luke 13: 22-30
August 24, 2025 | Sunday

Today’s Gospel

Jesus went through towns and villages teaching and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, is it true that few people will be saved?”

And Jesus answered, “Do your best to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has gone inside and locked the door, you will stand outside. Then you will knock at the door, calling, ‘Lord, open to us!’ But he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know where you come from. Away from me, all you workers of evil.’

You will weep and grind your teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside. Others will sit at table in the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south. Some who are among the last, will be first; and some who are among the first, will be last!”

Today’s Reflection

The gathering of all nations from all the ends of the earth is the message of the prophecy of the last chapter of the prophet Isaiah. It was after the return of the people from exile that all nations would be blessed by God through their worship in Jerusalem and would spread again to the ends of the earth. It was surmised that the people had now been purgated through their exile, the first one happening in the wilderness of the desert at the time of Moses. It was a lesson learned, and the people now become relatively grown and mature. They will no longer just think of themselves but of other people. The hand of the Lord is always there—the realization of the promise to Abraham that all peoples of the earth will be blessed in him. Jerusalem now becomes the center of worship. Salvation is offered to all through Christ. In what way for all people, we do not know. Only God knows!

Despite all the world’s sufferings, tribulations, and pains, God is present and gives consolation. The “discipline” of the Letter to the Hebrews gives us that consolation! It was not that God intended all of these. Paul looks then in another way. He says that these “sufferings, pains, and tribulations” are actually a “privilege” in sharing the passion of Christ. The church in all ages carries that message as “the Body of Christ,” and truly as such. Christ understands our sufferings, and he made all possible avenues, even finding the only way, in obedience to the Will of the Father, to heal it. Healing comes only through Christ. Reconciliation with the Father comes only through Him. We live in a world that seems too open and in danger for many “substitutes” where the center is no longer God, and we are often lost in the swarm of materialism and false narratives; it is good to note that God never abandons us and gives us His “discipline” to come back to Him any time.

Luke again mentions in the interim that Jesus was on His way toward Jerusalem, passing through the different villages with his disciples. He knows what will be his fate in Jerusalem. The disciples again toss a question to Him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Maybe it comes out through their observation of the different villages they have passed through. Again, they either heed the prophet’s message or are continuously mute and stoic because of the travails and difficulties of life, and they have forgotten what the essentials are. Again the answer of Jesus highlights the “difficulty” of the demands of the Kingdom. However, God sends prophets, judges, and patriarchs to remind them from time to time of God’s care for His people. The “difficulty” becomes bearable only if we realize the importance of the essentials and that the grace of God is always there. Without Christ, salvation is impossible. Salvation is now offered, for which they will be surprised, not only for them but is now open for all people. The prophecy of Isaiah in the first reading comes into fulfillment in the person of Jesus.

/Vulnerasti, 2025