Fr Peter Wood reads from Luke’s Gospel (13: 22-30) in which Jesus says ‘try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed’.

Fr Peter says today’s Gospel is not an easy gospel. As we know, at times, it is a question, we think of … ‘will there only be a few saved?’ It helps us realise that to enter the kingdom of God is not a right; it is an honour and a privilege given to each of us, if we choose to do the will of God in our lives.

Fr Peter says, we know, it’s not an easy thing to follow the will of God. At times, we rather follow our own will; a will that often leads us astray as we try to, deep down, desire something as we try to find happiness in ways that, sometimes, may be destructive.  At times, we fall short of being able to truly give of ourselves totally to God in our faith – the relationship in which we all share.

As we think of today’s Gospel and what it means for us, Fr Peter asks us to imagine going to a place where we feel rejected. Imagine going to a place where the person you are visiting decides not to let you in. In this case, it is not God rejecting us. At times, we do reject God – we do reject following him. At times, we may think this is all too much – I can’t take it any more – I want to live my own life. At times, we may have done so. At times, we may not feel complete, we may not feel fulfilled – living a life that is meaningless, a life that has no purpose. Hopefully, if we truly desire to open that door, we do so wholeheartedly and willingly but, more importantly, with a humble heart.