Visitation of Our Lady

The Gospel reading for the next 5 Sundays will not come from St. Mark, which is what we focus on in the B Cycle of Sunday Gospel readings, but from St. John, particularly the 6th chapter. The Church is taking a step back from the flow of St. Mark’s Gospel to meditate on the Eucharist, as Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse appears in the 6th chapter of St. John’s Gospel. So I’ll take the Church’s lead and reflect on the Eucharist the next 5 weekends as well.

How many people do you suppose actually make it to heaven? A few? About half? Quite a few? Most? Well, if you know the answer, give me a call. I’d like to know the answer as well. Because, truth be known, I don’t know. But, I do have an educated guess which, later in the article, I’ll share with you. Jesus was asked the question. And, he punted. Rather than answering the question directly, Jesus did what he so frequently did. Jesus said in effect, “Look, I’m not going to give you a percentage of people who get to heaven but I’m going to tell you HOW to get there.” Jesus then went on to say, “Go through the narrow gate.” And, of course, that’s a head scratcher. What does going through the narrow gate mean? Well, I think it means we’ll get to heaven if we live the way Jesus did. If we live a life of sacrificial love. If we put others first and ourselves last.

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is this: “Father, why don’t you criticize all those people who leave Mass early?” Here are my thoughts. First, I try always to give people the benefit of the doubt. They may be dealing with an emergency. Most of the time that’s probably naive. They’re most likely leaving early to avoid after-Mass traffic. But I’d rather be naive than judge rashly. So, I choose to believe there might be an emergency. Second, Psychology 101 tells us that one adult telling another adult what he or she should do almost always results in the person who’s getting advice to figuratively (if not literally) give the person gratuitously giving the advice the finger.

I have read several of Pope Francis’ books. My favorite so far is The Name of God is Mercy. In it, the Pope uses an excerpt from yet another book, Bruce Marshall’s novel To Every Man a Penny. In Marshall’s novel, Father Gaston wants to hear the confession of a young German soldier whom French partisans are about to execute. The soldier confesses he has fornicated many times. He has slept with many, many women. Father Gaston asks the soldier whether he’s sorry. The priest explains that the soldier needs to repent. The young man does not lie. He says, “How can I repent? It was something that I enjoyed, and if I had the chance I would do it again, even now. How can I repent?” Father Gaston is a compassionate man. He desperately wants to forgive the soldier’s sins.

Perhaps you know someone who says being Christian is easy. If you do, please introduce me. I do not know a single person who says being Christ-like is easy. And, because I am a priest and study Jesus’ life, I believe I can include Jesus himself in the group that says being Christ-like is hard, incredibly hard. Jesus’ agony in the garden was excruciating. His best friends slept while he individually contemplated the zillions of times we rejected him by sinning. That contemplation was so hard, Jesus sweat blood. Later, those same friends would abandon him. Peter, the future head of his Church, would three times deny he knew Jesus, even though, in the Transfiguration, Jesus had shown himself to Peter as God. And Jesus’ crucifixion? Get real! It was hours of mind bending, horrific pain.