21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
St. Mark Church, Fallston
August 22, 2010
Love and Suffering: The “Narrow Gates” of Our Lives
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Mugged into Reality
A psychiatrist tells of a patient who was a widow and could not get over her husband’s death. She wept and grieved and refused to be comforted.
The psychiatrist could not understand why this woman was finding it so difficult to move beyond her grief.
One day the woman was mugged and her purse with $300 stolen.
To the utter surprise of the psychiatrist, the terrible incident helped the woman come to terms with the loss of her husband.
She came to understand that she had a loving marriage for most of her years – healthy, happily, and financially secure. That was why her husband’s death was so “unacceptable” to her.
Things like that she thought only happened to other people.
You could say that the mugging had robbed her not only of her cash, but of her illusion that she was immune to misfortune and that bad things happen only to others, to those who somehow “deserve” it.
The mugging forced her to realize that she was more like others than she wanted to believe. This widow finally made her way through the “narrow gate” the Gospel speaks of this morning.
The Gospel’s “Narrow Gate”
Jesus is trying to help us understand that life – this widow’s, yours and mine – are a series of difficult passages, “narrow gates” we struggle through – and there is no easy way to pass through them.
The “narrow gate” is:
1. The honest confrontation of who we are
2. The realization of our littleness before God
3. The understanding that we are nothing more nor less than brothers and sisters to every other human being.
From these descriptors, the “narrow gate” to God is difficult to enter because it is the way of limitless love and sacrificial selflessness. It can only be entered by letting go of our fears, our control, our pride, and our self-absorption. No easy task!
Yet, Jesus promises that anyone willing to struggle through the “narrow gate” will be welcomed into intimate communion with him and his Father.
Love and Suffering
In case you haven’t realized it yet, love and suffering are the narrow gates to the divine.
They are so, because only those two experiences are strong enough to break down our self-centered selfishness and open us up to the Mystery that is God in our midst.
LOVE AND SUFFERING are part of all human lives and they are the primary spiritual teachers, more important than any bible, church, priest, sacrament or sage.
LOVE AND SUFFERING are the main portals that open up the mind space and the heart space, breaking us into breadth and depth and communion.
RE LOVE: You must at one point in your life “love with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and your whole strength” (Mark 12:30) or it will not be love at all. That’s how love works and why it leads to the giving up of control.
RE SUFFERING: When you are inside of great suffering, you have a much stronger possibility of surrendering your controls and because you do not have much choice, now God himself can lead you.
Great love and great suffering make you willing to risk everything, holding nothing back.
Conclusion
It should come as no surprise that the Christian icon of redemption is a man offering love from a crucified position of great suffering!
Love and suffering were portals to Jesus’ union with the Father. They are no less portals to our union with Jesus in the very moment.
What great suffering, what great love right now is nudging you into reality and deeper life in God?
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
St. Mark Church, Fallston
August 22, 2010
Love and Suffering: The “Narrow Gates” of Our Lives
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Mugged into Reality
A psychiatrist tells of a patient who was a widow and could not get over her husband’s death. She wept and grieved and refused to be comforted.
The psychiatrist could not understand why this woman was finding it so difficult to move beyond her grief.
One day the woman was mugged and her purse with $300 stolen.
To the utter surprise of the psychiatrist, the terrible incident helped the woman come to terms with the loss of her husband.
She came to understand that she had a loving marriage for most of her years – healthy, happily, and financially secure. That was why her husband’s death was so “unacceptable” to her.
Things like that she thought only happened to other people.
You could say that the mugging had robbed her not only of her cash, but of her illusion that she was immune to misfortune and that bad things happen only to others, to those who somehow “deserve” it.
The mugging forced her to realize that she was more like others than she wanted to believe. This widow finally made her way through the “narrow gate” the Gospel speaks of this morning.
The Gospel’s “Narrow Gate”
Jesus is trying to help us understand that life – this widow’s, yours and mine – are a series of difficult passages, “narrow gates” we struggle through – and there is no easy way to pass through them.
The “narrow gate” is:
1. The honest confrontation of who we are
2. The realization of our littleness before God
3. The understanding that we are nothing more nor less than brothers and sisters to every other human being.
From these descriptors, the “narrow gate” to God is difficult to enter because it is the way of limitless love and sacrificial selflessness. It can only be entered by letting go of our fears, our control, our pride, and our self-absorption. No easy task!
Yet, Jesus promises that anyone willing to struggle through the “narrow gate” will be welcomed into intimate communion with him and his Father.
Love and Suffering
In case you haven’t realized it yet, love and suffering are the narrow gates to the divine.
They are so, because only those two experiences are strong enough to break down our self-centered selfishness and open us up to the Mystery that is God in our midst.
LOVE AND SUFFERING are part of all human lives and they are the primary spiritual teachers, more important than any bible, church, priest, sacrament or sage.
LOVE AND SUFFERING are the main portals that open up the mind space and the heart space, breaking us into breadth and depth and communion.
RE LOVE: You must at one point in your life “love with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and your whole strength” (Mark 12:30) or it will not be love at all. That’s how love works and why it leads to the giving up of control.
RE SUFFERING: When you are inside of great suffering, you have a much stronger possibility of surrendering your controls and because you do not have much choice, now God himself can lead you.
Great love and great suffering make you willing to risk everything, holding nothing back.
Conclusion
It should come as no surprise that the Christian icon of redemption is a man offering love from a crucified position of great suffering!
Love and suffering were portals to Jesus’ union with the Father. They are no less portals to our union with Jesus in the very moment.
What great suffering, what great love right now is nudging you into reality and deeper life in God?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment