It is a stark warning "You will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven". Over the last few Sundays the Gospel has reflected on the reality of who we are as God's children - the blessedness of the Beatitudes, and the significance of discipleship. Our following of the Lord is salt to the earth and light to the world. This week there is a slight change of emphasis. No one is dragged into service of the Lord, and likewise no one is dragged into heaven.
"If your virtue does not exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven"
People often ask, how could a God who is love send people to Hell? In other words, is it possible for the Father of Light to allow any of his children enter into eternal death? God is Love, is He not? Well, the truth of the matter is, God sends no one anywhere.He invites us to follow him, to enter into His life and if we choose otherwise; we are free to do so.
I often reflect on the Love of God. It is eternal, accessible and never ending. It is so big we could never begin to understand it, still we treat it as something ordinary, almost banal. God loves me, so what?! A teacher told me once of an encounter she had with a student. It was Lent and she decided to bring her 14/15 year olds to the church to do the Stations of the Cross. She got to the third Station, Jesus falls the first time. The teacher explained that the Lord was so tired after all he had gone through the previous night, loosing so much blood being whipped, that he collapsed under the weight of the Holy Rood. A girl said to her, "That's stupid Miss, why didn't he just put it down?" The teacher explained that he couldn't and that he was carrying it for her and all the world. The girl quipped back, "He is wasting his time, I never asked him to carry it!"
It is the Cross that is a sign of God's love. That is the Love of God: the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. As soon as we forget that, as soon as we forget we are bought and paid for, our faith become ordinary and irrelevant.
Christ asks us to live in a way that reflects the mystery of our faith: dying you destroyed our death. He does not compel us to do anything. He invites us to be close to him, and by being close to him we will imitate him. Even though we are children, we are not dragged kicking and screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven. We have to chose. And that choice is lived out every moment of our lives, in every context we find ourselves in.
The philosophy of our age, echoing Paul, tells us to do what you want as you like. Christ points another way, HIS way, which is truth and life. The Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen asked once; Do you know the national anthem of hell, the song which the fallen angels and the damned are forced to sing???..........."I did it my way!"
Christ's way is the only way.
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html (have a look at this!)
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