Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. Why has God made the door narrow? Or is the door only narrow, because we have made it so? God did not make the door to His kingdom narrow. We make it narrow. Some of the things that will make the door narrow are worry, anxiety, fears, possessions, holding grudges, resentments, negativity or by being swept away in the busyness of day to day living.
Jesus calls us to conversion. The call is urgent. 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.” Jesus Christ is the master, who has risen indeed! The locked door suggests the final judgment. St. Paul tells us that one day we all will stand before Christ and give an account. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil. (2Cor5:10)
By the Holy Spirit, we are led to conversion. Conversion is a lifelong journey. How do we respond to God’s grace each day?…are we cooperating with God’s grace or rejecting it?…especially in the graces received in the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist.
God treats you as sons…At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. This discipline is accepting the need for conversion and making it happen.
Mary leads us closer to her Son, Jesus Christ. St.
Maximillian Kolbe said that Mary rushes to our aid, even when we have not asked. The theologian Hans Ur von Balthasar, wrote: “A queen enjoys full power, even with regard to the king. Mary’s fullness of power is expressed in her intercession for us and her mediation of graces, so that we receive all personal graces from God.”
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!
God bless us all always!
Deacon Mike