answered, “Do your best to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to
enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has gone inside and locked the
door, you will stand outside. Then you will knock at the door, calling, ‘Lord, open to us!’ But he
will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets!’ But he will reply, ‘I
don’t know where you come from. Away from me, all you workers of evil.’
You will weep and grind your teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the
prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside. Others will sit at table in
the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south. Some who are
among the last, will be first; and some who are among the first, will be last!”
Reflect:
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a 1989 science fiction comedy film, wherein an invention by a scientist
accidentally shrinks the kids to miniature sizes. Perhaps it is we adults who need to shrink ourselves,
and consciously so, if we are to pass through the “narrow door.” If our souls have become too obese
feasting on the “world” (in the Johannine sense), we might want to fast a bit so as to fit the size of the
entry door to the Kingdom. For our souls to reach the manageable size, as we saw yesterday, we do
not need superhuman aerobics: it is enough to do the little things in life with faithfulness. Paul suggests
a few such simple exercises: honor your parents, be a good example to your children, do your duties
with commitment, do good, respect one another, fear the Lord. In other words, take care of the
Commandments, and the Beatitudes will be yours.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022