Lec
# 123- 21st Sun of OT- Aug 25, 2013- Fr. Bresowar
My
brothers and sisters,
One
of the favorite questions among our protestant brothers and sisters, at least
in certain denominations is, “Are you saved?”
I
remember growing up receiving that question from time to time. “Are you saved?”
And the answer of course was contingent upon the condition of acceptance of
Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior.
If
you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and savior, then you were saved.
Under
those conditions, then I guess we are all saved here and most places, rather
Catholic or protestant.
In
today’s culture, it seems like the question of salvation and its certainty is
all but answered based on the reality if the person has accepted Jesus has a
personal Lord and Savior or if the person is a generally good individual.
However,
if we look at the Gospel, and what our Lord has to say about salvation, we get
a different answer than maybe what we are accustom to hearing.
In
the Gospel, the question of salvation comes up again today from the apostles.
They ask him, “Are few people saved?” And Jesus gives a curious answer, a
difficult answer. HE doesn’t say “Yes, under these conditions that you are a
good person and that you accept me as your personal Lord and savior.” No, He
says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”
For
our Lord, who tells his apostles, not only strive to enter the narrow gate, he
also says in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, that for men, salvation is
impossible, but for God all things are possible.
Peter
immediately responds, almost in desperation, “Lord, we’ve given up everything
to follow you.”
As
if to say, yes, we believe you and we’ve proven it by giving our whole lives
over to your message and yet here you are telling us that it is impossible for
us. Jesus in turn comforts Peter by reminding him that those who were following
Him, that those who give up everything to follow him, who leave everything
behind, they will receive 100 times more in the present age, and persecutions
and eternal life.
It’s
really as if Jesus is telling his apostles, in today’s Gospel and in the Gospel
of Mark, that if you really desire salvation, it’s not going to be that easy.
You are actually going to have to really work for it.
That
flies in the face of today’s culture, which seems to believe that salvation is
a simple “yes” to God once, and all is good.
“Strive
to enter through the narrow gate,” our Lord tells us. In today’s culture, we
could almost translate that as “make an attempt to enter through the narrow gate.”
That’s all you have to do. But that’s not how the apostles would have
understood it. It’s certainly not how the Church interprets it.
When
Luke wrote this, he wrote it in Greek.
•
The Greek word
translated as "strive" is "agonizomai"
[agg-uh-nihd-zoh-my].
•
It has the connotation or a
meaning of a supreme effort.
•
In fact, Our English word agony
comes from this Greek word.
•
The Greeks used this word to
describe the contests in their Olympic games.
•
They also used it to describe hand-to-hand
combat with an enemy.
Other Bible versions translate it as
"make every effort" and "try your hardest".
So, maybe if Jesus, said, “Try your
very hardest, or make every effort to enter the narrow gate,” we might
understand that salvation is not something we need to take lightly.
The answer to the question, “Are you
saved?” is not as simple as yes or no. First off, we are not the judge; so, to
declare our salvation is presumptuous. All we really have is hope that if “we
make every effort,” or “try our hardest,” then God’s grace will take effect in
our lives and our Lord will judge us to be worthy.
But to say, yes I am saved, then you
have foregone your judgment which is not possible. Paul reminds us in his
letter to the Philippians to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, not
with comfort and certainty.
And Jesus warns us against comfort
and certainty. He warns us of complacency and where it can lead us. If Olympic
athletes trained only one day a week they would never be Olympic athletes.
Conversely, if we only take our faith seriously one day a week, we will never
take our place in the Kingdom, nor will we bear any fruit for our Lord.
“For many, I tell you, will attempt
to enter
but will not be strong enough,” the
Lord warns.
Nobody wants to hear on that judgment
day, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me you evildoer!’ No one.
That’s where complacency in our faith will lead us.
“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.”
My brothers and sisters, this is
Truth. We must strive, we must try and try hard, we must make every attempt to
follow Christ, Sunday through Saturday, to live as if our salvation matters. We
must, for in the end, what does it profit the individual to possess the whole
world if he or she loses his or her soul in the process? In the end, only one
thing matters. Life is Christ, and to incorporate Christ into our Life, means
to give up everything and follow him, trusting that doing so will yield clarity
and purpose in our life.
Do we need to fear that we are going
to Hell? That is not our hope, our hope is in Christ Jesus. But we need not assume that our
salvation guaranteed because that leads to complacency; instead, let us keep
moving forward every day, every moment, living the Gospel Truth, and we will,
by the sanctifying grace alive in our soul, be more and more conformed into
Christ so that death, and the fear of it, will have no power over us, and our
life will transition into paradise.
