A good Sunday to all.

For the last few Sundays, we have been accompanying Jesus who is on a journey to Jerusalem, and during this journey, we have witnessed several episodes. We remember the doctor of the law who asked Jesus, what must he do to inherit eternal life. Then we saw how Martha and Mary received him; we listened to his parables, and he also taught us how to pray; and last Sunday, he told us his message, that the fire he brought from heaven would create problems and divisions on earth.

Luke insists on presenting us these episodes and teachings while Jesus is on a journey; he knows where he is going; he goes to a specific destination: Jerusalem, where he is called to give definitive proof of his love. Luke insists because he wants to tell us that he is tracing the path that you must also follow if you want to be his disciple. Our brothers in the faith of the first generations had this way in mind; were conscious of being strangers and pilgrims on this earth.

The Letter to the Hebrews says that we have not here below a stable city, we are on our way to the Jerusalem of heaven. When Peter writes to the persecuted Christians of Asia Minor he says, “I exhort you as strangers and pilgrims." The pilgrim is different from the wanderer; both walk, but the pilgrim has a destination; he knows where he is going, whereas the wanderer does not ask himself questions about his destination, about the meaning of his journey; it is enough for him to enjoy only what he finds on the way, and he does not think about anything else.

Let us be careful because we can also lose sight of the destiny that Jesus traces for us. Maybe we cultivate some beautiful ideal, pass an exam, start a family, get a job... these are beautiful goals, but they are immediate; by themselves, they will never be enough for us because after we have achieved them, they will never be enough for us... we will ask ourselves, what next? It is very well explained in the Qoheleth that wisely says, 'be careful because God has put infinity in the heart of people and if you don't answer this need for infinity, you will be always unsatisfied,' and you will blame someone; you will say, 'if I had something I lacked, I would be satisfied.' Don't fool yourself; even if you had everything you want, if you could make your dreams come true, know that they will never be enough to calm this restlessness of yours.

So, you ask yourself, can anyone give you a satisfactory answer? Are there many or few who respond to this need for infinity? This is the question that in today's gospel passage a man asks Jesus. It is also of interest to us, let us listen:

"Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 30 Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few people be saved?’”

In the Jewish world at the time of Jesus, the question of salvation aroused great interest, provoking many discussions about what salvation meant, who are the saved, salvation and the resurrection, understood as the return to the life of this world, naturally with no more pain, no more misfortunes, no more sickness, only fullness of joy. Those whom the Lord deems worthy of this resurrection will be the saved.

When and why did the resurrection begin to be spoken of in Israel? It started very late; the Israelites were not like the Egyptians who have always believed in another life. It was only at the beginning of the second century that they began to talk of resurrection. It was when the pagan Seleucid kings began to persecute those who wished to remain faithful to the Torah and its traditions and martyred those who did not adhere to their new religious proposals. Then they asked themselves when God—according to the promises he made to the patriarchs and the prophets— will begin his kingdom in this world, a kingdom of peace, joy, of righteousness. The righteous and, in particular, the martyrs will they be excluded from this joy? And their answer was NO. The Lord will raise them up so that they may participate in his kingdom; he will bring them back to life.

At certain times in Israel's history, this expectation, this messianic hope was felt in a particularly vivid way. In Jesus' time, faith in the resurrection was that of a minority. The priests of the temple, the Sadducees, not only did they not believe in the resurrection, but they ridiculed it. Let us remember when they came to Jesus and asked him, a woman had seven husbands in this world and then died; when she is risen to which of the husbands will she be delivered? And they said it with a smile on their lips. This resurrection, a return to this world's life, is impossible.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed in the resurrection. The question was, ¿who will be admitted to this resurrection and will be saved, only some... all the children of Abraham... even some righteous among the heathen? This is the reason for the question put to Jesus. The Pharisees held that all Torah-observant people would obtain salvation, that is, they would be resurrected. Let us remember Martha when Jesus tells her, ‘Your brother will rise'; Martha says, 'of course, my brother was a righteous man; of course, he will rise again.' Jesus tells her, ‘This is not the resurrection that I have brought into the world, it is not a return to this life, but it is the manifestation of life of the Eternal that I have brought into this world and that is given to all the sons and daughters of God.' But they thought that this salvation would not reach the wicked and the ungodly.

Let us remember the mother of the seven young Maccabees, who after having encouraged her sons, one by one, not to yield to the proposals of Antiochus. Finally, she turns to the ruler and says to him: 'Wicked man, you will not participate in the resurrection of the righteous; you will not be saved.' The apocalyptics held that only a few were destined for eternal happiness. The fourth book of Ezra, perhaps the most famous of the apocalyptic books, says this age, that is, the present age, was created by the Most High for a multitude, but the future age is reserved for a small number; many are created, however, few will be saved. And the only way to be saved—on this all agreed—was the diligent practice of the Torah. Therefore, salvation depended on the effort of each one; it was a prize to be attained at the end of life and was given to those who deserved it.

The anonymous person who asked the question to Jesus does not think that the salvation is a prize; in fact, he formulates his question very well; he does not ask, are few who are saved observing the Torah, by behaving well, but he asks whether few are saved, i.e., he understands that salvation is a gift that is given. Does he mean, are there few who allow themselves to be saved? He understood that salvation is not a payment given at the end of life; it is a gift. However, he makes a mistake, the mistake they still even many Christians make today. It is dangerous to think that salvation comes at the end of life when those who have behaved well, have observed the commandments, have not committed mortal sins (or if they committed them, they confessed), in the end, the Lord gives them their ticket to paradise, and they are saved.

This is not the salvation Jesus speaks of, and this interpretation of salvation has given rise to much controversy; it was discussed whether all would go to paradise, or some would go to hell... and are there many who go to hell? Some saw them falling into hell as the leaves fall from the trees in autumn; some said that Judas, at least, was sent to hell. Let's stop talking about this because Jesus does not speak of this salvation. For Jesus, salvation is not at the end of life. There, the Father indeed welcomes all his sons and daughters with his embrace.

The kingdom of God, however, where Jesus invites is not at the end of life; it is today when Jesus wants us to let ourselves be saved by his life proposal. Therefore, we must let ourselves be saved, that is, that we adhere to his beatitudes. We remember the heartfelt recommendation that Jesus made at the conclusion of last week's Gospel passage, when he said to agree immediately with your adversary before bringing you before the judge; you must get an agreement with the Gospel that you feel as your adversary that does not let you do what you want; it makes you very demanding proposals. Adhere to them immediately; let him save you now because if you wait until the end, it will be too late.

So, don't ask Jesus if they are many or few those who allow themselves to be saved; the answer is before our eyes. Unfortunately, they are few those who accept the proposal of the Gospel, few are those who trust in its beatitudes, or forget themselves to become the servants of their brethren, few accept the proposal of sharing one's own goods, not to accumulate to put everything at the disposal of the needy. Let us think about the gospel text that we heard a couple of weeks ago when Jesus said to the little flock: "Do not be afraid, little flock. Don't be afraid, sell what you have, give it as alms, make yourself some bags that will not grow old.” It's a small flock, and Jesus knows that. He says, 'let yourself be saved now, by giving all that you have to the poor.

It is not easy for us to adhere to his beatitudes; it is easier for us to adhere to the beatitude of this world, and Jesus tells us, ‘Do not gamble your life on the temporary, but lean on love that endures, let yourself be saved at once.' Let's listen to what Jesus answers to the person who asked him the question:

"Jesus answered them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.’”

Jesus answers the question they asked him; he is interested in clarifying well how one enters today, immediately, in the kingdom of God; how one becomes and remains his disciple. And he gives the indications with three images. The first one: To be saved, you must strive... The translation says 'strive,' NO. You must fight; 'Ἀγωνίζεσθε' - Agonízesche, this Greek verb is used for the competitions of sportsmen; there is a struggle to fight if you want to be saved.

It is the fight that Paul also speaks of in the first letter to the Corinthians, in chapter 9, when he uses the image of the races and of the wrestling in the stadium, he says: "Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.” Then he gives the personal example: “Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”

Therefore, it is an inner struggle that does not take place outside of us; it is the conflict that we all experience between the passions that make us withdraw into ourselves to satisfy our selfishness, and the voice of the Spirit that urges us, on the other hand, to love, to think of our brother. It is an arduous conflict; if we do not experience this inner conflict, it means that we have not understood what the Gospel asks of us.

Certainly, if we reduce our adhesion to Christ to some devotional practice, we will not experience any inner conflict; we will even do it with a little laziness. Jesus tells us in chapter 11 of the Gospel according to Matthew, that 'the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take possession of it.' You must do violence to your selfishness. It is not for cowardly people. He who thinks he can enter the kingdom of God without facing this inner struggle is deluded. Even Jesus faced it, and it was very hard for him always to remain faithful to the voice of the Spirit.

Second image: The narrow gate through which one must pass if one wants to let oneself be saved. To enter through a narrow gate, there is only one way; you must make yourself small. Let's go back a few pages of the Gospel according to Luke. Now we're in chapter 13. If we go back to chapter 9, we find a discussion that takes place among the disciples asking Jesus ¿who is the greatest? They were arguing among themselves because they all wanted to be first. Jesus then takes a child and tells them that if they want to be first, They have to become like a little child and puts him beside him and says, 'whoever is the least among you, this is the great one.' If you want to become rich, to accumulate goods, if you want to rise, to be served, you remain too big and fat, you will never pass through the gate that leads to the kingdom of God, to salvation. You will no longer belong as a disciple of Christ, or you will belong in name only.

Third image: The crowd in front of the gate. Thus, there is a distinction between the great multitudes who are in front of the gate desiring to enter but remaining perhaps very ‘big’ and are always there at the gate, and some, on the other hand, become small and enter, they are saved. Therefore, the distinction is among the true disciples, who follow Christ and accept his proposal of man, these are few.

And then many stay at the door attracted by the Gospel; they appreciate what Jesus did and taught, but they stay at the door. This is the reality we see today in our Church. The masses remain consistent, there are numerous who call themselves Christians and who are also convinced that they are and, therefore, belonging to the group of the saved. Jesus invites them to reflect because it could be an illusion.

And now Jesus addresses these people in a threatening tone to save them. Let us listen:

“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.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’”

At some point, the master gets up and closes the door. The reason why Jesus introduced this scene is to make us listen to the reasons of those who stay outside and pretend to enter; they believe they have the right to participate in this banquet. Who are those who are outside? Let's try to identify them because they could also be us. First, how do they call the master? They don't call him Jesus; the scribes and the Pharisees called him Jesus. They call him 'Lord.' This is the way the Christians addressed the risen one. The scribes, the high priests, called him: Jesus, that one, that man, that impostor. Only the Christians called him the Lord, and, then, those who are left out, are the baptized, and they are surprised that they are left out; they think they have the right papers and, in fact, present two credentials to be identified.

The first: we have eaten and drunk in your presence. The allusion is clearly to the Eucharist; we are members of the community, we participate in the Lord's day, in the eucharistic banquet; then, we have heard your word, you have taught in our squares, we do not come from afar, we have always been in your house; how is it that you do not recognize us as members of your community? The reason is that the knowledge of the evangelical proposal is not enough; adhesion with life is necessary. If this adhesion does not exist, even eating the Eucharistic bread becomes a hypocritical, false gesture.

This is why even the baptized can be left out of the kingdom of God. It is not difficult to guess what prompted the evangelist Luke to present us with this scene and to use these harsh words because their communities had been infiltrated by weariness, by secularism, by the presumption of being right with God, arrogance, the conviction that good intentions are sufficient, and that salvation can be obtained on the cheap.

Luke realizes that for many Christians, there is the danger of the illusion of belonging to the kingdom of God when in reality they are still outside; they are the baptized who have not allowed themselves to be saved; they continue to administer the goods of this world as they did before when they were pagans; they continue to treat his servants, their slaves, as pagans do, and there were many wealthy Christians at that time who owned slaves, whom they should have treated as brothers and sisters, but they continued to treat them as slaves.

Luke says that these people are outside the kingdom of God. In fact, in the words of this group, when they present their reasons, they say only that they practice a religion; what they present are the religious practices; there is no mention in their words for the love of the brethren, the gift of life, the use of goods for the needy... No. They simply say, 'We have participated in the liturgies, and we have heard your word’; yes, but where is the practice of the life of love? I would say they are non-believing practitioners because to believe means to stake one's life on the proposal of the Gospel. This is the danger of a reassuring religious practice that anesthetizes consciences, makes one feel good with God, but it is an illusion.

The master says, "Depart from me, all you evildoers." That's the quote from the sixth psalm where it says, 'depart from me, you doers of vanity.' This is the translation. They are those who do vain things that God is not interested in. 'Depart' does not mean rejection, ‘I send you to hell,’ no. It means take note that you have nothing to share with me; then Jesus is not talking about hell. He only says that those who do not practice with their life the propositions he has made, have nothing to do with him, nor with the kingdom of God.

Now let us turn our attention to the last scene, that of the banquet from which one may risk being excluded. Let us listen:

“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. 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. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

The words of Jesus that we have heard are very hard, and we are a little bit surprised to find them in the Gospel according to Luke. We are used to hearing them in the Gospel according to Matthew, where the fire of Gehenna is often spoken of, this mournful refrain of weeping and gnashing of teeth is repeated six times. In the Gospel according to Luke, only once is Gehenna mentioned, without speaking of the fire of Gehenna, and only once, in the same passage we have just heard. He also resorts to the image of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And why does he resort to this language? Clearly, he feels the need to give a jolt to his communities where he has noticed that there are some baptized people who, without realizing it, are readapting to pagan life. If they do not realize it immediately, Luke says, they will end up crying when they realize that they have failed in life.

They thought they were Christians, that they were saved, but in reality, they have gone back to pagan life. And there will be a gnashing of teeth there... What is this rabbinical image? It is a sign of the rage of those who realize too late that they were wrong. And after these threatening words addressed to those who deceived themselves that they had the right to belong to the kingdom of God, but instead, they are outside, appears on the scene a second group composed of patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the prophets; and then there is an immense multitude coming from the four corners of the earth.

Who are these? Among them, indeed, there will be the majority of the baptized, those who have taken the Gospel seriously and have given their adherence of life. But in this multitude, there are perhaps many who have not heard of the Gospel, but if they have entered the banquet of the kingdom of God, it means that they went through the narrow gate, that is, they have behaved as servants of the brethren, they have become small and have entered in; they have listened to the voice of the Spirit, which led them to serve and love their brethren.

Let's remember that beautiful phrase found in the first letter of John in chapter 4: "Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; whoever loves—whether he is baptized or not— is begotten of God and is a son of God because God is love." And that's why it is beautiful to contemplate in this multitude the brethren who have loved, moved by the Spirit, though they have not heard of the Gospel.

The conclusion: "Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” It is Jesus' reminder to be watchful because you who have been fortunate enough to find this treasure of the Gospel, if you do not give your full adherence and be more responsible, you may be surprised to see that somebody who is not a baptized person is capable of heroic acts of love.

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.