The narrow door towards lasting peace

The gospel gives us much to ponder on. It revolves, no less so, around the essential question of salvation. How can one be saved? In essence, Luke 13:22-30 teaches that salvation is not automatic or a result of privilege but requires a genuine commitment to following Jesus and entering a life of faith and obedience. Jesus responds by urging his listeners to “strive to enter through the narrow door”. This “narrow door” symbolizes the path of faith and discipleship, which requires effort and commitment. Our English word “narrow” comes from the Greek word thlibo, which has much to do with persecution and trouble in this context. For Jesus’ disciples, that meant they would encounter hostility from Israel’s leaders and their community members, who might misunderstand why they lived the way they did.

Similarly, for us today, taking the narrow path may at times cause friction in our relationships or other comparable challenges. People may not understand why we live the way we do, and such misunderstandings often result in relational and other suffering.

We can enter through the narrow gate, as Jesus did, and trust his directive for life—his good yoke. Following his narrow path is a weighty challenge and requires a willingness to suffer. And yet, he crafts his yoke with love and light. It is reasonable and not burdensome; it enlivens us.

“Narrow is the path that leads to life,” Jesus says, and this path will eventually guide us to God’s renewed creation, to true shalom. We follow the narrow path to life because we do not want to harm anyone, but rather we want everyone to be saved and thus discover the peace of God for themselves.

From the peace of God, we return to our parish life. This week, there is much to report. The organization of our parish fete is progressing well. Last week we started pre-selling the tickets. For the first week, things are going well but it could be better. For our two schools and communities in our parish, we want to sell a total of 2,000 raffle ticket booklets. Given the wonderful prizes, it should be possible to sell them if you all participate in this pre-sale process. Perhaps you can help us sell the booklets. Would it be possible for each of you to take five booklets and encourage your friends and relatives to buy them? If we all work together, we can achieve great things.

Many volunteers in our parish also do great things. I’d like to highlight our church cleaning and flowers ministry this week. Every week, they do an extra shift after their regular work to keep the church clean for all of us and to help our parish saving for important maintenance works. I am also very pleased that a group of Patrician Brothers college teachers have sacrificed their time to ensure cleanliness at Our Lady of Lourdes. Under the guidance of Anthony Pope, also a parish pastoral council member, they worked last Friday from 9am to 12pm in the garden, in the church and in the parish house as part of their spirituality day. Thank you all for your help.