Lk.13: 22-30
Being a witness of Christ is the greatest challenge of every disciple. The life witness of those who had gone before us always inspires us to continue their legacy. The testimony of Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan would challenge us to live our discipleship in an authentic manner. He was a Vietnamese bishop. He was bishop for eight years and then the Pope, St. Paul VI appointed him as the Archbishop of Saigon. But at that time the communist regime seized the political power in Vietnam and unleashed religious persecution. They imprisoned the Archbishop. He was imprisoned for long thirteen years and after that he was released but he had to leave his motherland. He shared all his experience in his spiritual classic ‘Testimony of Hope’.In the beginning, he was depressed; he could not understand the divine plan behind this tragedy. He asked: “why does God permit this disaster”? Very soon he recognized his new pastoral ministry in the prison. The ministry of giving hope for his fellow prisoners. It is very moving and inspiring to read about the way, in which he celebrated the Holy Eucharist, let us reflect this experience in his own words:
“When it was dark I celebrated mass. I celebrated it with three drops of wine and a drop of water in the palm of my hand. They were the most beautiful masses of my life. After I passed the communion under the mosquito nets for the others, I preserved the Blessed Sacrament. The following day we collected some cardboard cigarette boxes from the other prisoners in order to make pouches and preserve the Eucharist in them. Helped by the Eucharistic presence they prayed during the night. This happened during work too, because each of them in the camps took it in turns to carry the Eucharist under their clothing, and this presence of Jesus gave them strength and encouragement. This transformed their lives.”
A difficult road always leads to a beautiful destination. Without accepting the challenges and hardships of the journey we cannot enjoy the beauty of our final destination. In today’s gospel, Jesus exhorts us to enter into the kingdom of God through a narrow door. A detailed reading of the scripture would tell us that Jesus himself is the narrow door. In this context, we understand the fact that many were attracted to the teaching of Jesus especially‘the kingdom’ preached by Jesus. Anyhow, they were not ready to live ‘the beatitude’ preached by Jesus to become part of this kingdom. They were not ready to take-up the cost of their discipleship.
It is true that God has chosen the Israelites as his chosen people but they remained stubborn to the teachings of Jesus. This singular privilege of being the chosen people of God does not give them a free entry into the kingdom of God. The people from the east and the west entering into the kingdom of God before them indicate the fact that whoever spite of their ethnical background, accept and live Christian values will have a place in the kingdom of God. The message of the gospel reached to them late at the same time they were open and responded to the gospel values with openness. Jesus made himself clear that the mere acquaintance with him is not sufficient to enter into the kingdom of God. It demands the conscious living of Christian values.
This passage has a great significance because it stands close to our context. The question to be asked is, are we ready to be the witnesses of Christ? Are we ready to accept the challenges of being a disciple of Christ? Remaining as namesake Christian and the mere acquaintance with Christ will not give us entry into the kingdom of God. We need to live the gospel values in our day to day life. We may not be able to live these values in its fullness. We may have our failures. Jesus looks at us from within. He has seen our efforts. He takes into consideration our sincere efforts and our love to grow into his own person, to be another Christ to our fellow brethren. Let us remind and pray for all our brethren who encounter the hard realities of the narrow door that they may be strengthened to live their Christian ideals and be a witness and may our life be a testimony of hope for our fellow brethren…