The demands of discipleship

Today’s gospel reading is about Salvation and Rejection something that we lesser mortals ought to comprehend fully, after all we are Christians and salvation is part and parcel of our beliefs and doctrines. But there is always the problem of rejection, rejection because of our lack of discipline or simply, man’s rejection of God’s invitation to live a life eternal. You can read this in your bibles in Luke 13: 22-30.

“[Jesus] pass through towns and villages teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them. 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.

25 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.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ 27 Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me evildoers!

28 And here will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and al the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. 29 and people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

This passage teaches us what is needed for those who want to follow the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ; that first and foremost they have to endure, sacrifice and persevere and above all, have discipline. Without discipline, we end up not fulfilling our part of the bargain. Without discipline, people who have committed their souls to God’s fold, loses the opportunity to save themselves for life eternal.

I have been involved in a covenanted community where couples are required to sign a covenant with the Lord. It saddens me that so many of my friends who made this holy pact with the Lord have failed in their commitments, simply because they did not persevere due to a serious lack of discipline and of course, lack of faith. When people fall back to their old ways, they are the most difficult to get back into the sheepfold of Jesus because they’ll tell you, “We’ve been there already and have done that.”

We have learned from the Torah or the Old Testament that Israel is the eldest amongst the sons of God, after all, it has been written many times that they are indeed the so-called “Chosen ones of God” hence they thought that salvation would come to them as a birthright. They did not listen to the one who came from the loins of King David… that salvation can only come if they obey the tenets of God, principal among them is the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments, a teaching that both Christians and Jews anchor their faith on. In the end, the Jew rejected their own kind and God’s blessing went to the Gentiles who wholeheartedly embraced the Christian faith.

So when someone asked the Lord who can be saved, Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” Being strong enough means you need to possess a certain trait or characteristic and a strong will. That means one needs to have discipline, something sorely missing in the hearts of men.

Discipline brings order to one’s life or the society we live in. God is a God of order; hence discipline is a key factor in discipleship because without it, there is only chaos. All we need to do is look at the everyday chaos happening in our streets with the ill-disciplined way that many motorists drives on our streets, not to mention the pedestrians crossing anywhere.

Personal discipline is equally important. If you go out drinking with your buddies and you say to yourself that after taking two beers, you are not taking anymore… that is an attempt to discipline yourself. But when you take more than what you said you would, then you just lost your discipline and in the end, you could lose your life driving in a drunken stupor.

 Now what did our Lord mean when he said, “For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Remember Dimas who was crucified with Christ in Calvary? He wasn’t a disciple or follower of Jesus, but he was saved when he beg the Lord for forgiveness. Call him the last that entered the kingdom first. There were many of his disciples were very much ahead, like Judas. It is the same for many of us Catholics who for a long time obeyed the magisterium of the church. Because of our piety, we shall be considered the last, while others who later found Jesus Christ in their hearts can be the first. What important to us is that while others have become holier than we… we must become as holy as we should.

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