Agonize to enter the narrow gate

Homily: 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C

          For those of you paying attention, in the world of Indiana professional sports, a bombshell was dropped last night as Andrew Luck, the franchise quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts, announced his immediate retirement from playing football.  For those of you who follow football, even casually, you’ll know what a shocking announcement this is.  For those of you who don’t, however, I’ll try to summarize what happened and why this is such a big deal.

          Andrew Luck is only 29 years old and has been in the NFL for only a handful of years.  He was and continued to be one of the more talented quarterbacks in the NFL.  In spite of injuries that have sidelined him over the past couple of years, Mr. Luck was still considered to be at the top of the list of quarterbacks who could lead his team to a championship.  His announcement, however sudden, was not random.  This year, it is reported, he was facing more injuries that would keep him sidelined which caused him to worry both about whether he’d ever be able to return to top form and what all of this would mean for his quality of life after football.  Thus, he made what he described to be an intensely difficult decision: one that has shocked the sports world.

          What Mr. Luck’s announcement reveals to us is this: that to remain at the top level of any sport, one must have a desire to fight through every obstacle and the discipline to endure the day to day hard work that overcoming those obstacles requires.  Mr. Luck describes having lost that desire (he called it losing the “joy” of playing football), which meant that he no longer had the will to maintain the discipline.

          The word “discipline”, for most of us, probably connotes something negative: that is, being punished for something that you did wrong.  Discipline, therefore, is a corrective: suffering imposed on someone in order to correct an improper behavior.  For example, you discipline a child for coloring on the living room walls.  In other words, you make them feel bad in order to teach them that it is bad to color on the walls.

          Now, I’ve just touched on something that, I hope, will help us see that “discipline” is something more than just punishment.  You see, “discipline” shares the same root word as the word “disciple”; and what is a “disciple” but someone who learns from a master and tries to follow the master’s ways.  In other words, a “disciple” is one who learns and then applies that learning to his or her life.  “Discipline”, therefore, looked at in this way, is more than “punishment”; rather it is “teaching”.  And so “discipline” for professional athletes is not just a punishment that must be endured, but a way of teaching themselves how to achieve the level of skill that they will need, and to overcome obstacles that inevitably appear, in order to compete at the highest echelon of their sport.  Thus, almost every one of them will say that “you need a lot of discipline to compete at this level”; and we all hear that and say, “You’re right” (which is probably followed by a thought “and I don’t have it!”).

          In the Gospel reading today, Jesus is passing through towns and villages on his way to Jerusalem and somewhere along the way a man approaches him and asks this very sincere question: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  Jesus, being who he is, is able to hear the “question behind the question” that the man is asking and his response reveals what that question might have been: “Lord, is it possible that I can be saved?”  And how does Jesus answer this question?  He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”  Now we don’t need to know what “narrow gate” Jesus is talking about: rather, it is enough to imagine a narrow gate that is difficult to get through and, thus, what it would take to squeeze through it.

          The word “strive”, itself, is heavy with meaning, because the Greek word that Luke, the Gospel writer, used is the same word from which we get the verb “to agonize”.  So, in a sense, Jesus is telling this man “to agonize to enter through the narrow gate”.  “Agony” is another word that has negative connotations.  “To agonize over” something is to suffer something unpleasant: for example, indecision at not knowing the correct choice to make in order to achieve something important.  Nevertheless, that “agonizing” often leads to a decision; and thus the suffering produced by the agony turns into a “discipline” that helps one achieve his or her goal.  Thus, to strive—to agonize—to enter through the narrow gate is also to discipline yourself to enter through the narrow gate.  Thus, we see that Jesus was not talking only about exerting raw energy in your effort, but that he was also talking about disciplining yourself—allowing yourself to be taught how to enter the gate—so that you can enter through it: “for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter,” Jesus said, “but will not be strong enough.” /// “Lord, will only a few be saved?” the man asks…  “That depends,” Jesus seems to say, “on how many people truly strive for it.”

          Thus, we can see that making it to the heights of professional sports and making it to heaven are not dissimilar things: both require discipline and effort.  There is one extremely important difference, however—a difference that makes the one nearly impossible for any of us to achieve and the other very possible for all of us to achieve—and that is this: in professional sports you’re judged by your performance, whereas in salvation, you’re judged by your effort.  None of us would question that each athlete in professional sports is putting forth his or her maximum effort towards “entering the narrow gate” and winning a championship.  Yet, only one athlete or team wins a championship: and this because the individual/team performance was better than all of the others.  Salvation, however, does not depend on the perfection of our performance; rather, it depends on whether or not we’ve given our maximum effort.

          Thus, Jesus says “strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”  “Strive”—discipline yourself—make yourself strong so that you can give the maximum effort, because that is what it will take to enter through the narrow gate.  This, my brothers and sisters, is what we do when we pray daily, when we study the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church (and strive to be obedient to those teachings!), when we live the sacramental life (meaning primarily: regular confession and weekly participation in the Eucharist), and when we serve others through the works of mercy.  These disciplines are what prepare us to enter through the narrow gate.

          Those who are not strong enough are those who give up on one or more of these disciplines, believing that because they “know Jesus” that they will still be saved.  Jesus, however, disagrees.  Those who have given up on these disciplines, even though they know Jesus, will be like those locked out of the master’s house after he has locked the door and who cry out to the master who then replies “I do not know where you are from”.  We must know the master, yes, but we must also strive to enter; because once the door is locked it won’t be reopened.

          My brothers and sisters, it is a beautiful mercy of God that he does not expect perfection of us so that we can be saved.  Although his justice requires perfection, his mercy takes into account the effort that we put forth towards achieving it and, thus, he welcomes us, in spite of our flawed performances.  Therefore, taking the achievements of professional athletes as our inspiration, let us rededicate ourselves to those disciplines of prayer, study, obedience to Church teaching, celebrating the sacraments, and doing the works of mercy so that the glory we achieve will be the kind that never fades, the glory of entering through the narrow gate to be seated at our master’s eternal wedding feast: the foretaste of which we enjoy even now, here in this Eucharist.

Given at Saint Mary’s Cathedral: Lafayette, IN – August 25^th, 2019