What's the Question?

Gospel: Luke 13: 22-30

Jesus never answers the questions that are addressed to him in the Gospels, often because we ask the wrong ones.  Today people want to know how many will be saved, and Jesus does not answer it as it is unimportant and irrelevant to our lives.  We still want to know the answer to that question, and we waste endless amounts of time creating exegesis to answer a question that Jesus himself does not answer for us, highlighting our own lack of understanding about what is important in Christian life.

And what is important is what Jesus stresses in today's scene - how it is that we might be saved.  First, we are to enter by the narrow gate, meaning we should have very few possessions and attached to nothing.  Then, we are to enter in the daylight, doing deeds of light and not darkness.  These deeds of light are the works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick and imprisoned, welcoming the stranger.  

Salvation is about those two things - simple, unattached living and extending mercy to others.  That is the whole of the Christian life.  It is not about a catechism quiz, nor is it about club membership or liturgical preferences.  Our entire Christian life is about living a simple life with no attachments, and providing mercy and loving kindness to others, just as God has shown to us in our lives.  These are the sole points of focus for our lives.