- The readings for Sunday are found at usccb.org>>
- I am presiding and preaching at 9:30am and 11:00am Masses on August 22
Nice figure you cut!
I have mentioned before the silhouette cutter at Higbees in the old days. Friends in my old childhood neighborhood had five kids. Going up the stairs in the house they had the kids' silhouettes hanging - just a black shape of each child's profile. Although all grown up now, you can still identify each person's silhouette.
What is the silouhette that would be "cut" of our lives, what is the figure we cut in the world? Is it conformed to that of Christ, the narrow gate? That is the answer Jesus gives to the question "Who will be saved?" The Lord doesn't bother - he simply says, "forget about how many and strive to conform your life to salvation's key - Jesus Christ, the narrow gate"
I am wondering if we ever think that the answer to whether or not we are saved is really a question - what figure is your life conformed to? Being saved looks like something, or better someone.
6 comments:
First thing that came to mind is comparing the "Narrow Gate" to the "confessional gate."
I need the push of the Holy Spirit to go through...
Only by loving Jesus with all our heart and making his life our life with all the sacrifices involved, we will be able to go through the "narrow door" with a very pretty body, soul and spirit, empty of ugly attachments. Our silouhette will be easily recognized upon knocking on the door.
HATE, absolutely HATE your first question, how's that for a reaction?! Ten bucks bets you that most listeners will tends towards the sin of pride. A lot of us think we're all right, as long as we're good we don't have to worry, how's that for a narrow gate?
So easy to think "appearance" and "profile" matter. Gosh, for most of my life I've been lulled into thinking how good I am by the fact that I pray, go to Mass and do good. What rubbish! The narrow gate is work, HARD WORK, starting over and over and over again.
The last paragraph of the commentary above is confusing in written form, had to read it again & again. To hear it orally I think people will be scratching their heads saying, "What did he say"? It's like turning a parable into another parable. Again, examples are effective...what does conformity to Christ look like in our everyday lives?
...over my head...again...
I am thinking of how fundamentalists think that being saved is a one-time event and they are good to go for the rest of their life.
However, John 3:16 says that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. How do we reconcile that scripture passage with our Catholic belief in works? Non-Catholics will say that faith alone saves you, "lest no man shall boast." Yet we come back with "Faith without works is dead."
What are we to do? lr
A later entry…
I, too, remember Wally Spatz from Highbee’s and her talent with silhouetting. (A good piece of nostalgia!) And once again the Matador’s reflection also makes a connection for me with some current reading of mine. I am thinking about the idea of the silhouette and the “cut” of our lives conforming to our Savior - the narrow gate. Meanwhile, my current reading is challenging me to consider that there is no distinction from the being of Jesus Christ and His mission – from who or what he is in himself and what He does for us. It is an awesome thought to me – that His being is entirely connected with His loving within the Trinity and of us. Transferring this to Fr. Estok’s reflection, I am asking myself, is my life cut like THAT? Is my life one that my very being is connected with divine doing - of such self-giving, of such outpouring of love? It is another reminder to me that in this life we can’t attain such perfection, but we are called to keep trying - to strive to connect our very existence with such deep communion and love, to God and to one another. And then this takes my mind from imagining a still silhouette to imagining a series of silhouettes flipped one after the other – like the old “flip books” that I also used as a child in Wally Spatz’s time, so that the being and doing are united.
Woohoo! Bingo! Now THAT is what I'M talkin' about. TMW
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