21st Sunday Ordinary Time – Year C

Deacon Tom Vert

Preached: August 23, 2025

If you have been to the airport lately, you see the changes they are making to luggage and anything you need to bring onto the plane.

For checked bags, you have to go to the baggage check area and print your luggage tags and weigh the bags.

If you are over the weight, it will not take the bags away, and then you have the dilemma… what do I have to take out to make the weight go below the target?

Do I have to go back to my car and get rid of the extra sweater or two pairs of shoes?

Even with carry-on, they measure your bag in the little rack, and it must fit, or you have to pay an extra fee or gate check it.

Some airlines are now charging even for carry-on bags!

We are challenged to take less and the less, so the less baggage we carry, the better off we will be!

Today’s readings challenge us with the same thing in the spiritual life – are we carrying too much baggage to make it through the narrow door?

What do we have to give up ensuring we aren’t shut out behind the gate and Christ telling us “sorry, I do not know you”?

How many bags do we need to get rid of to fit down the narrow passageway?

Is it true that there are only “few to be saved” so we must figure out how to squeeze ourselves through?

This question I think has been asked for at least 2000 years…how many will make it into eternal life?  And will I be one of them?

Jesus doesn’t answer the question directly, but I would offer to first review two misconceptions that have been around since the time of the gospels.

First, we have the error of universalism, or that every person will make it to heaven regardless of what life they have lived here on earth.

The argument goes that God is so loving and merciful, that He would never leave even one person behind from eternal life.

He will always find a way to let them in since Paul writes to Timothy “God our Saviour who wants all people to be saved.” (1 Tim 2.3)

The other error over time is that the number of people to be saved is tiny and people will quote the book of Revelation that only 144,000 of the billions of people who have ever lived on the earth will enter the narrow gate.

It has been argued that these are the most holy, most perfect and saintly people and the rest of us are not worthy and will be shut out.

As you would expect, both views are wrong as they are both extreme.

We see that Jesus does not answer the question directly about a number but does show us the true path that God has made for us to enter the gate.

Jesus says that people will come from the north, south, east and west and instead of giving a number, he tells the crowd and us to “strive” to enter the gate!

Strive!!!  It is such a powerful word!  In other translations of the Bible the words are to earnestly desire, to be zealous, set your hearts, and put your focus on the target.

So, we are called to strive in our faith life.

St. Catherine, our patron saint, in her writings, agrees with this and tells us that we are to earnestly desire to be in communion with God, and He will take that desire, that striving and make the transformations in our life as we allow Him to mold us.

God will show us in our prayer life and the situations that come, how to drop the excess baggage and be able to enter the narrow gate!

So, you may ask…what excess baggage does God want us to drop?

Well, if you think about a journey…why do we bring so much with us?

The truth is that we want to be ready for anything that may come…we want to be in control…we want to be self-reliant!  Complete self-reliance is really the sin of pride…I can do it all myself and I don’t need anyone, including God to help me.

God challenges us to rely on Him in the good times and in the times we struggle.

We hear this in the 2^nd reading to the Hebrews. Just before these verses, St. Paul says to the people…let us throw off everything that hinders and entangles us, and to run the race of life with our eyes fixed on Christ.

He tells them to endure the ups and downs of life as it will produce righteousness and peace within us.

So, we are called to drop the baggage of pride, self-reliance, and the need to control things in our lives and instead to put ourselves into the Father’s hands and let His love guide and strengthen us.

We know in our hearts that this is true as carrying all the bags of life is a heavy burden, and we remember Christ telling us “come to me all you who are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest”.

This week as we come to God in our prayer, picture yourself packing for a trip, then look at your spiritual luggage, and think of God’s promises, and then say:

“The less baggage we carry, the better off we will be!”