Endure your trials as discipline; God treats you as sons. – Hebrews 12:7

       I’ve made it a discipline to trust God’s Word even for the smallest things, literally. When I search for something that’s seemingly lost, I claim the Word “that the eyes of the Lord (are) ten thousand times brighter than the sun” (Sirach 23:19). This is what happened during a recent trip.

       While waiting at the hotel lobby, I felt something fall on my shoulder and onto the granite floor. It was the tiny clasp of my earring. I looked for it but it was difficult to spot because of the shades of the granite floor. A hotel personnel helped me by asking a cleaner to mop the area. I didn’t lose hope. After a long while, I was overjoyed to find it.

       On the same day, the tiny screw on my shades got lost, rendering my sunglasses unusable. Later in the evening, still confident that I would find it, I knelt on the white sheets of my hotel bed and shook my clothing there. Again, I was overjoyed to find it.

       Trusting God without limits is a discipline that I want to develop in the tiniest of trials as well as in the most difficult ones. Donna España (donna.espana@yahoo.com)

Reflection: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not yet seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Lord, I believe that You will grant everything I need as I pray and have faith.

Have you wondered what the glory of the Lord looks like? Maybe it will depend on each person’s state of mind. What looks glorious to one person may not look glorious to someone else. God’s glory is incarnate in Jesus, so we can be surely amazed when we see Him face to face.

Isaiah 66:18-21

18 Thus says the Lord: I know their works and their thoughts, and I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. 19 I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations. 20 They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the Lord in clean vessels. 21 Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the Lord.

Psalm 117:1, 2

R: Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

1 Praise the Lord, all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples! (R) 2 For steadfast is his kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the Lord endures forever. (R)

There is always pain and suffering in the life of a disciple. The Gospel message has challenges and difficulties. We have to overcome sin if we truly wish to grow in holiness. This will take a lot of hard work and discipline. The book of Ecclesiastes reminds us to prepare for an ordeal as we serve the Lord.

Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13

5 Brothers and sisters: You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: “My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; 6 for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.” 7 Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline? 11 At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. 12 So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. 13 Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.

GOSPEL

The way to salvation is through the narrow gate. It will not be easy to pass through it. We will deal with trials and suffering caused by sin as we become disciples of Jesus. Let us never give up on God because He will never give up on us.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father, except through me.

Luke 13:22-30

22 Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. 25 After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ 27 Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ 28 And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

think: The way to salvation is through the narrow gate.

Thank You Lord for: __________________

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Isaiah 21-24 

SABBATH PAUSE

THANK YOU LIST

SPECIAL NEEDS

HIDDEN TREASURE

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THE “NARROW GATE ”

The Church is reminding us of three things in today’s Gospel passages:

    First, that heaven, salvation and eternal life exist, which Jesus describes by using the image of a banquet.

       Second, that hell exists. This is what is referred to as the “wailing and grinding of teeth” — images of the hopeless frustration that the human soul experiences when it is cut off forever from friendship with God.

       And third, that in order to make our way to heaven, we have to keep on doing our part. It is not enough to have a superficial knowledge of Christ, like the people who said, “We ate and drank in Your company and You taught in our streets.” Rather, we have to have a living, lasting and growing friendship with Christ. That is what we were created for, and that is what will lead us to true life. Since friendship always involves effort, self-sacrifice and investing one’s time and energy, the same thing goes for our friendship with Christ. Salvation comes from actually following Him, from striving to know Him better and live out His teaching.

       It is possible to be labeled a Christian on the outside without really making an effort to follow the Christian way in our hearts. It is possible to go regularly to Mass, to be involved in parish activities, and still never really enter into a committed, life-changing, personal relationship with Christ. Jesus makes us aware that going through the motions isn’t enough. We need to let His grace change our lives.

       Pope Francis said in one of his Angelus messages: “To live the faith is not to decorate life with a little religion, like a cake is decorated with a little frosting. No! It’s not that. Faith entails choosing God as a fundamental criterion of life, and God is neither meaningless nor neutral. God is love!” Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Do you take your being a Christian too easy? Do you, as Jesus says, strive to enter heaven?

Lord, thank You for this reminder. Help me to strive more consciously to follow You, especially when it is difficult. Amen.