27 October 2021 LUKE 13:22-30
Wednesday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
UNIVERSALITY OF SALVATION
People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God (Luke 13:29).
Once a veteran politician was asked, ‘how come your son became a chief minister?’ He was neither seen in the political spectrum nor properly educated! The politician said,`He is the chief minister because he is my son.” Family lineage gave him automatic entry.
The central theme of gospel today is 1. Universality of salvation. “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God (Lk 13:29).”
2. Salvation is offered to the whole human family, entrance into it is not automatic. “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ Lk 13:26”. It means attaining salvation is not a matter of belonging to Christianity or somehow associated with Christ, but 3. a matter of entering through a narrow gate. Narrow gate: *of enduring sufferings for bearing witness to God, *of persevering in faith amidst challenges and temptations, *if conquering ego and selfish interests, *of overcoming negative attitudes, habits, sinfulness; above all doing good in everything. Amen.