Released Into Life

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, August 21st, 2022:
​Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Luke
13.22-30

Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”

Jesus said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

“When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

“Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But the Lord will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’

“There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Today, I am feeling sure. Even if I continue to have questions about my faith until I pass on from this life, I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is how I want to live it: striving to slip through the narrow door.

As I write, I’m on a plane returning to Halifax after enjoying the gift of witnessing my oldest niece profess her wedding vows. I sit here on the heels of a loving and encouraging conversation about how to raise up our young adults in faith, and I can’t help but contemplate the peace I now carry within me. I think of the peace my sister and her husband reflected onto all of us as they navigated the harrowing and novel labour of giving away their first child. I think of the weight of the sacrifice of entrusting their daughter into the hands of the young man now bound to her as “husband” — the weight of releasing her into the world at large — the grief of witnessing her ceremoniously and physically walking away from the safety and security of her loving and stable home. And yet — though they grieve, they have peace.

Why? They sense the hand of God on her life, and they place all their trust, all their hope in Him.

This is the narrow door. 

They described to me that in order to love her well, they will hereafter redirect her to her husband if she instead comes to them when she struggles to make difficult life choices. They will intentionally resist offering her counsel before recommending she consult her spouse — her mate. And they will do this by channelling all of the grace they can summon from God through prayer. By His grace, they will sacrifice the desire they carry as parents to nurture and teach their daughter as they have been doing for more than twenty years. 

This is the narrow door.

While fully acknowledging that their son-in-law, though a faithful man, will offer a different approach from that of their family’s — a change in perspective, new traditions, a departure from the communication style they’ve raised their children with — they will deny their own preferences in favour of the health of their beloved daughter’s marriage. Their choice to withhold judgement, and instead encourage holiness and respect of the sanctity of the marital union, will surely serve as an example to me, their children, and anyone else who journeys with them or seeks their counsel. 

This is the narrow door.

And it moves me to tears.

This Love who offers Himself in trust, sacrifice, harmony, and intentionality is good. This Love is the good-est. It is a gift of freedom to the one receiving Him, and it is a gift of grace for those offering Him. How different the world would be if we could all enter into this state of spiritual maturity — if we would all sacrifice our own desires for the good of the other, and if we would all ask for the grace to learn how we can best love in this way — intentionally and guided by Truth, staggering toward the narrow door.



Lori MacDonald​

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