Sunday, August 22, 2010  Fr. Will Lowery

 

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

My brothers and sisters in Christ;

 

A young man wrote a letter to a priest.  He told the priest that he could use the letter any way he wished.  Here’s what the young man wrote:

 

“I was one of the top swimmers in my category, and then one day I let my friends talk me into experimenting with drugs.  I got hooked.  Mental, physical and spiritual hell.  Deteriorated badly.  I became lonely and frightened.  I could not talk to anyone about it.  I was in debt to drug dealers over $3000.  The only way out as far as I could see was suicide.  So I wrote this note to my mother and dad, ‘Sorry to cause you this pain.  Please don’t grieve too much.  If I had stayed alive I would have caused you a lot more grief.  Remember I love you.’”  Then he went on to say, “I began to drink to overcome fear as I prepared to take my life.  And then at the last minutes something made me stop.  I grabbed the phone and called a crisis center.  I didn’t know it then but my mother was praying like mad for me.  I entered drug rehabilitation program and soon I regained my physical and psychological health.  It was then that I started reading the Bible, putting my trust in God.  It was a growing desire to learn more and more about Jesus.  I must have prayed on my knees at least 10 times asking Jesus to come into my life before I realized that He was already in my  life.  Now five years later God has blessed me abundantly.  I teach in a Catholic school and I am active in my parish community.”

 

I read this story and this letter that he wrote because I think it illustrates one of the points in the gospel this morning.  The door to God’s kingdom is indeed narrow and it seemed to that young man incredibly narrow.  But he kept trying to enter.  He struggled.  It took a lot of courage on his part and eventually he did enter the door. 

 

Someone has said there are three kinds of Christians; tugboat, sailboat and raft Christians.  Tugboat people who follow Jesus not only in sunny weather but also when the storms come.  People serve Jesus not only when the wind and tide move them but also when the wind and tide oppose them.  They go to Mass, not because they have to, but because Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  They help others not because they feel like it but because Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”  These kind of people are the kind of people that today’s reading exhort us to become.

 

And then there are the sailboat Christians.  People who follow Jesus when the wind and tide oppose them and tend to go in a direction that they are blown.  They go to Mass when family and friends go but left to themselves they often miss Mass.  They are people who ask, “How far can I go before I sin,” rather than, “How much more can I do because of love.”  They follow Jesus through the wide door but are reluctant to follow Him through the narrow door.  They follow the crowd more than the gospel.

 

Finally there are the raft Christians.  They are Christians in name only.  They don’t really follow Jesus even when the wind and the tide serve them.  If they go in His direction it’s only because someone pulls or drags them.  They do Christian things, not because they want to but because they have to.  They’re Christians in name but not in deed.

 

So today’s readings ask each of us are we tugboat, sailboat or raft Christians?  Tugboat Christians follow Jesus in good times and in bad.  They go with Him not only through the wide door but also the narrow door.  Sailboat Christians follow Jesus only in good times.  They follow Him only through the wide door.  And the raft Christians remain Christians in name only.

 

I think it is well for all of us to face up to the question—do we have the courage that that young man showed in his struggle against addiction?  If we show that courage and try to do our best God will certainly, and always will be with us to help us.

 

I’d like to conclude with a poem by English poet, John Oxenham.  He said; “To every person there opens a way.  A high way, a middle way, and a low way.  And the high soul takes the high way, the low soul takes the low way, and in between on the misty flats the rest drift to and fro.  But to every person there opens a way, a high way, a middle way, and low way and every person decides the way his soul shall go.”

 

So today, the 21st Sunday, the gospel reminds us that the door, the way to heaven is narrow and we need courage and we need God’s help to follow and enter into that door.  So we renew our faith today, we renew our resolution to constantly turn to God for help in all the difficulties of our life and continue to follow Him in through that narrow door into the eternal happiness of heaven.