STRIVE TO ENTER THROUGH THE NARROW DOOR
Homily for TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY C3
Readings: Isaiah 66:18-21; Psalm 117:1, 2 (see Mark 16:15); Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30
By Rev. Fr. Solomon P. Zaku
The verb ‘strive’ indicates action. It suggests making effort. It suggests struggle. When it modifies the adjective ‘narrow’, the intensity of the action, of the effort and struggle is heightened especially in getting access into noun ‘door.’
In other words, for one to get access to the ‘door’, even on the literal sense, effort or struggle is needed. On a figurative sense, Jesus says, ‘I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture’ (John 10:9). This means that gaining access to Jesus and his Kingdom demands striving, struggle and making effort every day to follow Jesus himself.
Why did the man ask the question whether only could be saved? ‘And someone said to him, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’ Why did the person ask this question?
I guess he wanted Jesus to answer him and from the answer he could take his position on his salvation. If Jesus answered him that ‘Yes, only a few could be saved’, this man might have given up and would not strive again and would say, ‘I may not be among the few elect.’ If Jesus said ‘Many would be saved’, the man could have given up striving and would say, ‘Since it is many who would be saved, there is no need for striving. I may be lucky person.’
The answer Jesus gave him is to arrest any kind of spiritual indolence or laziness in many who profess religion but would prefer to evade their social, economic, religious and civic responsibility by receding into escapism and fatalism. This answer is very apt for us Nigerians.
Today, we see people evading their responsibility and resorting to fatalism and escapism. They abandon their duty and responsibility and heap the blame of their misfortunes on God or spirits. Where industry, justice and sincerity are needed to solve some social, economic or civic issues, many prefer to evade these and resort fatalism and escapism and when things become disastrous, the blame goes to the spiritual or the divine.
In our reflection today, why do many Christians not want to strive after Christ and yet desire to go to heaven? Or, why do Nigerian Christians prefer the broad way in their quest to go to heaven instead of the narrow way to heaven?
Awuf: It is said the ‘awuf no de spoil belly’. Many of us want free things. Free money and free everything. For example, I was working in one of the parishes. I brought Moringa seed and planted in the Parish House. When it grew up, the parishioners began to come and collect the leaves for soup and for other dietary functions. As soon as I gave one woman, almost every woman came to collect it. It became habitual that every time, anyone could come to collect the leaves. They made life miserable for me. If I stopped them, they could begin to complain that I gave so and so and now I refuse to give so and so. When the plant produced, one day, I brought the seeds to the church and announced that here are the seeds of Moringa. Every household should collect and plant in their family so that I too could come and get. No body collected the seed.
In the towns, I laugh when I see responsible-looking women, women you can call ‘Women of Substance’, scrambling and fighting over food or drink during wedding, celebration and even funerals in the towns. They fight because it is free food and drink.
Sharp-Sharp Mentality: We don’t want to strive in life because of our impatience. We are people of speed. Everything is fast, digital age - fast food, fast life, fast growth, sharp-sharp relationship, engagement, marriage birth, divorce, sharp-sharp death, etc.
In our relationship with God, we apply this method. We are in haste to nowhere. We must hurry up and finish the Mass so that we will go for tribal meetings, business meetings, friends’ meetings, or beer parlour, etc.
Hubris/Shame: ‘Pride,’ we are told, ‘goes before fall’. Arrogant and foolish pride of Christian youths will kill them. Many Christian youths are ashamed to do menial jobs. They don’t want to learn entrepreneurial skills. They don’t to want to strive or struggle. They only want to be in the offices, air-conditioned offices. They want to be great in life without struggle. They are proud and ashamed to little things such as crafts. They only want to go to universities and polytechnics and become officers. This mentality has led them to be mere Grammar Graduates on the Streets with poverty to match. They have possessed the certificates but not the economic kingdom.
Many Christian youths here in the North feel reluctant to engage in menial trade. For example, would like to be seen taking fruits but they cannot sell fruits like oranges, banana, plantain, or foodstuffs like yam, millets rice, groundnuts, etc. Looking at Maiduguri town, one sees Muslims sell food items and fruits. As I asked them where they came from, many came from Sokoto, Jigawa, Kano or Katsina, etc to trade here but the Christians are too proud to do such menial business.
A mason who is my friend told me about what transpired between one his labourers and his girlfriend in one o fthe parishes I worked where mostly Christians live. He said that as they were going out to work one morning, the labourer was carrying digger, a pan and a shovel on his head. As they were moving, he noticed that the labourer was hiding. Before he could ask him why he was behaving suspiciously and awkwardly, a girl appeared and was talking to the labourer. She was his girlfriend. She asked him why he as with a digger, a pan and a shovel on his head. The labourer responded that one of the children of his elder brother has died and they were going to the cemetery for the burial.
Comprador Bourgeoism – The intellectual hubris and the social shame which distance the youth from reality have led into the pit of Nigerian Big-Man-ism in poverty. By their education, the youth are deluded to think that they are in special class, the bourgeois class. And so, they compare themselves, in their minds, with the bourgeoisie. They disdain the proletariat because they are not proletarian in mind but reality they are worse than they. They associate themselves with the rich and, even in their poverty; they can deny their biological parents and claim another rich parents as theirs. For example, they snap pictures near or in front of the homes or cars of the rich so that others will see as it is their own homes or cars.
I still remember, when we were treating the topic, ‘The Dignity of Human Labour’, ( in C.RS) I gave an assignment to some secondary school students to name the professions of their parents and then state what they as students want to be in life and what are they doing practically to realise their dreams. One person whose mother was selling pap or kunu said his her mother deals in African Viju, another whose father was a hawker of insecticides or Piapia said his father was a Mobile Trader, someone I knew his father was a farmer said his father was a Horticulturist.
Over-Paternalism: As a nation, one notices that leaders prefer the rest of the populace to be dependent on them. They prefer that people remain poor, uneducated and frustrated. If the people agitate, the leaders build them one mosque or church to silence them. They want you to come and beg them for your daily bread every day and do kabiyesi or Maula. I notice in the places of the emirs, able-bodied young men doing nothing but begging. The emirs are happy with this. They feel relevant, people depending on them.
From the family as the nucleus of the society, there is the dangerous spirit of over paternalism, protectionism and over-pampering of children –children grow up like Agric chickens – layers and broilers, shielded from the reality of life. From the Nursery schools to the tertiary institutions, they are over-protected and pampered. They don’t know what life is about. They may school abroad and come back only to succeed their parents at retirement or when they will be given political appointments.
So many parents are striving and struggling for their children. They don’t tell the truth to their children. They do assignments, pay for exams, take them to miracle centres and build houses for them. Parents steal from their workplaces or government on their behalf of their children and store it for the children to grow up and enjoy the stolen money. Many marry for their children. These children do not know the sunlight of life. They sit all day at home watching foreign movies while their parents are outside working for them. They only tell their children to go school and not to learn any craft. During holidays, the girls spend their time watching Ze-World or Big Brother Africa while the boys know all the names of English and European football clubs and their players. The children become ajebuuter children.
On societal as well as on the family level, we see that some leaders do not want the rest of the populace to be educated. They are kept in perpetual beggary and dependence so that they can have social, economic and political control over the population.
I like the popular story of a man who told his children that after his death they should destroy his house in which he lived and they would find a box buried under the house. They were to open it and they would find something in it. The children prayed earnestly for the quick death of their ailing father and when he died, they were preoccupied with demolition of the house than with his burial. Within three days after his death, they went to the ministry of works and housing to hire graders and caterpillars to demolish the house. They finally found the box. They took it and headed for the police station so that they were guarded, fearing that kidnappers and enemies would attack them to collect their money. When they finally opened the box they saw a letter in which their father wrote: ‘If you are real men, build your own house!’
In today’s second reading and in the gospel, we are seeing a father like his who disciplines his children, who tells the truth of life to his children so that they are not lazy or self-destructive. We see a father who disciplines his child so that the child grows up to benefit himself and others in this world and in the hereafter.
“Brethren: Have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? – “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed”.
And Jesus himself said today, ‘Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.’” In Matthew’s Gospel, he says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the gate that leads to destruction, and many enter through it” (Mat 7:13). ’.
Our selfishness to gain control over our children has blinded and deafened us to thee woes words of Jesus: Many Christians over-protect their children and refuse to train them in the way of the Lord. They refuse to tell them the truth to work and earn a living and be righteous. They over-love their children and allow them to do as they wish. Now these are drug addicts, kidnappers and cultists. They cannot help themselves and the community.
We see the life of Jesus who came to the world and worked as a carpenter. This tells us to do something worthwhile with our lives on earth. This teaches that there is no crown without cross.
We should dispose our minds as we struggle to follow Christ. As we receive Christ in the Eucharist, he becomes for us the food and grace to enable us strive through the narrow gate. With Christ, we shall surely succeed and the kingdom of God shall be ours even in this life. (21:08:2019)
Readings: Isaiah 66:18-21; Psalm 117:1, 2 (see Mark 16:15); Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30
By Rev. Fr. Solomon P. Zaku
The verb ‘strive’ indicates action. It suggests making effort. It suggests struggle. When it modifies the adjective ‘narrow’, the intensity of the action, of the effort and struggle is heightened especially in getting access into noun ‘door.’
In other words, for one to get access to the ‘door’, even on the literal sense, effort or struggle is needed. On a figurative sense, Jesus says, ‘I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture’ (John 10:9). This means that gaining access to Jesus and his Kingdom demands striving, struggle and making effort every day to follow Jesus himself.
Why did the man ask the question whether only could be saved? ‘And someone said to him, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’ Why did the person ask this question?
I guess he wanted Jesus to answer him and from the answer he could take his position on his salvation. If Jesus answered him that ‘Yes, only a few could be saved’, this man might have given up and would not strive again and would say, ‘I may not be among the few elect.’ If Jesus said ‘Many would be saved’, the man could have given up striving and would say, ‘Since it is many who would be saved, there is no need for striving. I may be lucky person.’
The answer Jesus gave him is to arrest any kind of spiritual indolence or laziness in many who profess religion but would prefer to evade their social, economic, religious and civic responsibility by receding into escapism and fatalism. This answer is very apt for us Nigerians.
Today, we see people evading their responsibility and resorting to fatalism and escapism. They abandon their duty and responsibility and heap the blame of their misfortunes on God or spirits. Where industry, justice and sincerity are needed to solve some social, economic or civic issues, many prefer to evade these and resort fatalism and escapism and when things become disastrous, the blame goes to the spiritual or the divine.
In our reflection today, why do many Christians not want to strive after Christ and yet desire to go to heaven? Or, why do Nigerian Christians prefer the broad way in their quest to go to heaven instead of the narrow way to heaven?
Awuf: It is said the ‘awuf no de spoil belly’. Many of us want free things. Free money and free everything. For example, I was working in one of the parishes. I brought Moringa seed and planted in the Parish House. When it grew up, the parishioners began to come and collect the leaves for soup and for other dietary functions. As soon as I gave one woman, almost every woman came to collect it. It became habitual that every time, anyone could come to collect the leaves. They made life miserable for me. If I stopped them, they could begin to complain that I gave so and so and now I refuse to give so and so. When the plant produced, one day, I brought the seeds to the church and announced that here are the seeds of Moringa. Every household should collect and plant in their family so that I too could come and get. No body collected the seed.
In the towns, I laugh when I see responsible-looking women, women you can call ‘Women of Substance’, scrambling and fighting over food or drink during wedding, celebration and even funerals in the towns. They fight because it is free food and drink.
Sharp-Sharp Mentality: We don’t want to strive in life because of our impatience. We are people of speed. Everything is fast, digital age - fast food, fast life, fast growth, sharp-sharp relationship, engagement, marriage birth, divorce, sharp-sharp death, etc.
In our relationship with God, we apply this method. We are in haste to nowhere. We must hurry up and finish the Mass so that we will go for tribal meetings, business meetings, friends’ meetings, or beer parlour, etc.
Hubris/Shame: ‘Pride,’ we are told, ‘goes before fall’. Arrogant and foolish pride of Christian youths will kill them. Many Christian youths are ashamed to do menial jobs. They don’t want to learn entrepreneurial skills. They don’t to want to strive or struggle. They only want to be in the offices, air-conditioned offices. They want to be great in life without struggle. They are proud and ashamed to little things such as crafts. They only want to go to universities and polytechnics and become officers. This mentality has led them to be mere Grammar Graduates on the Streets with poverty to match. They have possessed the certificates but not the economic kingdom.
Many Christian youths here in the North feel reluctant to engage in menial trade. For example, would like to be seen taking fruits but they cannot sell fruits like oranges, banana, plantain, or foodstuffs like yam, millets rice, groundnuts, etc. Looking at Maiduguri town, one sees Muslims sell food items and fruits. As I asked them where they came from, many came from Sokoto, Jigawa, Kano or Katsina, etc to trade here but the Christians are too proud to do such menial business.
A mason who is my friend told me about what transpired between one his labourers and his girlfriend in one o fthe parishes I worked where mostly Christians live. He said that as they were going out to work one morning, the labourer was carrying digger, a pan and a shovel on his head. As they were moving, he noticed that the labourer was hiding. Before he could ask him why he was behaving suspiciously and awkwardly, a girl appeared and was talking to the labourer. She was his girlfriend. She asked him why he as with a digger, a pan and a shovel on his head. The labourer responded that one of the children of his elder brother has died and they were going to the cemetery for the burial.
Comprador Bourgeoism – The intellectual hubris and the social shame which distance the youth from reality have led into the pit of Nigerian Big-Man-ism in poverty. By their education, the youth are deluded to think that they are in special class, the bourgeois class. And so, they compare themselves, in their minds, with the bourgeoisie. They disdain the proletariat because they are not proletarian in mind but reality they are worse than they. They associate themselves with the rich and, even in their poverty; they can deny their biological parents and claim another rich parents as theirs. For example, they snap pictures near or in front of the homes or cars of the rich so that others will see as it is their own homes or cars.
I still remember, when we were treating the topic, ‘The Dignity of Human Labour’, ( in C.RS) I gave an assignment to some secondary school students to name the professions of their parents and then state what they as students want to be in life and what are they doing practically to realise their dreams. One person whose mother was selling pap or kunu said his her mother deals in African Viju, another whose father was a hawker of insecticides or Piapia said his father was a Mobile Trader, someone I knew his father was a farmer said his father was a Horticulturist.
Over-Paternalism: As a nation, one notices that leaders prefer the rest of the populace to be dependent on them. They prefer that people remain poor, uneducated and frustrated. If the people agitate, the leaders build them one mosque or church to silence them. They want you to come and beg them for your daily bread every day and do kabiyesi or Maula. I notice in the places of the emirs, able-bodied young men doing nothing but begging. The emirs are happy with this. They feel relevant, people depending on them.
From the family as the nucleus of the society, there is the dangerous spirit of over paternalism, protectionism and over-pampering of children –children grow up like Agric chickens – layers and broilers, shielded from the reality of life. From the Nursery schools to the tertiary institutions, they are over-protected and pampered. They don’t know what life is about. They may school abroad and come back only to succeed their parents at retirement or when they will be given political appointments.
So many parents are striving and struggling for their children. They don’t tell the truth to their children. They do assignments, pay for exams, take them to miracle centres and build houses for them. Parents steal from their workplaces or government on their behalf of their children and store it for the children to grow up and enjoy the stolen money. Many marry for their children. These children do not know the sunlight of life. They sit all day at home watching foreign movies while their parents are outside working for them. They only tell their children to go school and not to learn any craft. During holidays, the girls spend their time watching Ze-World or Big Brother Africa while the boys know all the names of English and European football clubs and their players. The children become ajebuuter children.
On societal as well as on the family level, we see that some leaders do not want the rest of the populace to be educated. They are kept in perpetual beggary and dependence so that they can have social, economic and political control over the population.
I like the popular story of a man who told his children that after his death they should destroy his house in which he lived and they would find a box buried under the house. They were to open it and they would find something in it. The children prayed earnestly for the quick death of their ailing father and when he died, they were preoccupied with demolition of the house than with his burial. Within three days after his death, they went to the ministry of works and housing to hire graders and caterpillars to demolish the house. They finally found the box. They took it and headed for the police station so that they were guarded, fearing that kidnappers and enemies would attack them to collect their money. When they finally opened the box they saw a letter in which their father wrote: ‘If you are real men, build your own house!’
In today’s second reading and in the gospel, we are seeing a father like his who disciplines his children, who tells the truth of life to his children so that they are not lazy or self-destructive. We see a father who disciplines his child so that the child grows up to benefit himself and others in this world and in the hereafter.
“Brethren: Have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? – “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed”.
And Jesus himself said today, ‘Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.’” In Matthew’s Gospel, he says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the gate that leads to destruction, and many enter through it” (Mat 7:13). ’.
Our selfishness to gain control over our children has blinded and deafened us to thee woes words of Jesus: Many Christians over-protect their children and refuse to train them in the way of the Lord. They refuse to tell them the truth to work and earn a living and be righteous. They over-love their children and allow them to do as they wish. Now these are drug addicts, kidnappers and cultists. They cannot help themselves and the community.
We see the life of Jesus who came to the world and worked as a carpenter. This tells us to do something worthwhile with our lives on earth. This teaches that there is no crown without cross.
We should dispose our minds as we struggle to follow Christ. As we receive Christ in the Eucharist, he becomes for us the food and grace to enable us strive through the narrow gate. With Christ, we shall surely succeed and the kingdom of God shall be ours even in this life. (21:08:2019)
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