Our trip to Jerusalem

Our trip to Jerusalem

A shadow covers the scenario of today’s gospel.  This hidden aspect of today’s gospel narrative is the realization that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, the destiny of his definitive mission and ministry to bring salvation to our fallen world.  As Jesus approaches his end of his earthly mission, things have become dead serious.  Jerusalem awaits the somber events that are about to enfold as history stands on the threshold of redemption.

The Gospels are somewhat set in the context of a journey.  This context of a journey serves the two-fold purpose of symbolizing Christian life and the movement of Jesus toward his salvation destiny.

We are formed by the journey we embark on in our effort to follow Christ’s own journey of suffering, death and resurrection.  Our Christian journey is where we learn the lessons of discipleship, familiarizing and living the values of Christ’s kingdom of love and forgiveness.  In Christ’s perspective, there is no room for self-righteousness, narrow-mindedness and sinfulness.

To pursue the journey requires repentance from the heart.  Religious superiority or religious adherence or observance of the law is nothing if there is no repentance in the heart.  Repentant sinners are more likely to enter through the narrow door before the self-righteous.

Today’s gospel demands that we ask ourselves: who are the gentiles, sinners and the unclean in our world?   Would we follow Christ’s imperative to welcome them as he welcomed them?

Within our spirit, there is a vastness to explore our capacity to love and serve.  Every effort to embark and pursue this journey of love leads to the narrow door.  The journey through the narrow door requires a strict diet of an active Christian life of love and forgiveness.   It requires constancy in our prayerful dialogue with our Savior and a regular exercise of our spiritual muscles that would keep them trim and fit for apostolic action.