Daily Readings for Sunday August 22, 2010

Reading 1, Is 66:18-21

¹⁸ I am coming to gather every nation and every language. They will come to witness my glory.

¹⁹ I shall give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coasts and islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations,

²⁰ and from all the nations they will bring all your brothers as an offering to Yahweh, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, Yahweh says, like Israelites bringing offerings in clean vessels to Yahweh’s house.

²¹ And some of them I shall make into priests and Levites, Yahweh says.

Gospel, Lk 13:22-30

²² Through towns and villages he went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem.

²³ Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them,

²⁴ ‘Try your hardest to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.

²⁵ ‘Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself standing outside knocking on the door, saying, “Lord, open to us,” but he will answer, “I do not know where you come from.”

²⁶ Then you will start saying, “We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets,”

²⁷ but he will reply, “I do not know where you come from; away from me, all evil doers!”

²⁸ ‘Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrown out.

²⁹ And people from east and west, from north and south, will come and sit down at the feast in the kingdom of God.

³⁰ ‘Look, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.’

Reading 2, Heb 12:5-7, 11-13

⁵ Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, do not scorn correction from the Lord, do not resent his training,

⁶ for the Lord trains those he loves, and chastises every son he accepts.

⁷ Perseverance is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him?

¹¹ Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter for grief, not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears fruit in peace and uprightness.

¹² So steady all weary hands and trembling knees

¹³ and make your crooked paths straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed, it will get better instead.

Reflection: In the Gospel someone asked Jesus, if salvation is only for the  few. Jesus, dismisses the mere theological curiosity underlying their question. Rather, he addresses the more important issue, not HOW MANY will be saved but on HOW ONE can be saved. And the answer Jesus gave in here: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”

Isaiah today, in the First Reading, indicates that SALVATION is actually meant for everyone.