Reflection on Lk 13:24

“Try to enter by the narrow door,

for many, I tell you, will try to enter but will not be able.”

This is Jesus’ answer to the question as He walked through the towns and villages toward Jerusalem, teaching as He went. Someone said to him: “Lord, are there really few who will be saved?” To this Jesus gave the answer about the narrow door that leads to salvation. This is the word of life that we will be remembering throughout the two weeks. This word of life is followed by, “Once the householder gets up and closes the door, and you stay outside and start pounding on the door and crying, ‘Lord, open it for us,’ then he answers, ‘I don’t know where you are from!’ Then you will say, ‘We have eaten and drunk with you, and you have taught in our streets!’ But he will answer, ‘I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you will be cast out. And they shall come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. Behold, they are the last that shall be first, and they are the first that shall be last.” (v. 25-30)

Jesus speaks of the narrow door and says that we must make some effort to enter through that narrow door. It’s interesting that He says, “Many will try to enter, but they will not be able.” He then explains this in the next part of the conversation. That is, the efforts of those of whom it is said, “I don’t know you, where you are from,” were made at an inopportune time, after they had already rejected the opportunity at the time offered to repent, that is, to change their minds and accept Jesus’ rules into their personal lives. They even pounded on the door and cried aloud, “Lord, open to us.” But the door was already closed. The time for repentance had been wasted, the person found no time for God and for his soul, and suddenly the end came, death. Jesus repeats twice, “I do not know you, where you come from.” And He adds, “Depart from Me, all you who commit iniquity.” He is showing where such a life without God will end. Where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

God speaks to us in different ways. Both by the events that are around us and by those that concern especially today the whole of humanity. Unfortunately, many have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear. Why? The prophet explains, “Because their hearts are dull.” The cause, then, is dullness, or hardness of heart as far as their own salvation and the salvation of their neighbours is concerned. We are not to rend our garments, that is, to repent outwardly only, but we are to rend our hearts. That is to say, to make room for Him to enter into it, who already on the cross had His heart pierced, and His feet and His hands, and who shed all His blood for our salvation, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. But he who rejects Jesus through unbelief and indifference does himself the greatest harm. This harm has an impact on all eternity! The Holy Spirit convicts us where the main fault lies. It is unbelief in Christ. “The sin is,” says Jesus, “in not believing in Me.” Unbelief has to do with accepting the spirit of this world, its thinking. Therefore, we must keep our faith in Christ, in which is the new thinking. This faith is the key so that at the hour of death we may enter through the narrow door into eternal happiness. If we have thrown away this key of faith, we must seek it. He who sincerely seeks will find. Jesus says, “Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you, ask and it shall be given to you.” But we must seek in time and knock in time also. If we keep putting off repentance until tomorrow, God may not give us tomorrow.

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