Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem — a journey deep into the heart of God’s love. Along the way, someone asked Him: “Lord, will only a few be saved?” It’s the kind of question we often ask in different ways: Am I good enough? Have I done enough? What more should I do to be saved?
Jesus does not answer with measures of goodness. Instead, He points to a door — a narrow door. Not narrow to keep us out, but narrow because we cannot pass through carrying all the baggage we cling to: the resentments we nurse, the wounds we refuse to release, the unforgiveness that weighs us down. These cannot fit through. To walk through that door, we must let go, not only of our hurts but even of our illusions about ourselves. Salvation is not only about the end of life, but about the now. It is about the choices we make in the ordinariness of today — whether we choose to love, to forgive, to trust, to stand with the small and hidden.
Then come those piercing words: “I do not know you.” At first, they sound like rejection. But what if they are really words of grief? The aching voice of a friend: “I wanted to know you… but you never let me in.” Our world often celebrates what is big, visible, clever, and successful. Jesus tells us the first will be last and the last first — because true joy is found in standing with those at the margins. In the silence of such moments, in the hidden companionship of those who are least, God is already there waiting.
Margaret Silf tells a story of a traveller who reaches a narrow mountain pass. She is burdened with bags filled with souvenirs collected along the way, each one reminding her of hurts, losses, and past regrets. The pass is so narrow she cannot squeeze through. At first, she despairs. Then slowly, one by one, she lays the bags down , each release both painful and liberating. At last, empty-handed, she steps through the narrow place into a wide, breath-taking valley filled with light. What she thought was loss becomes freedom.
The journey of Jesus to Jerusalem invites us into that same freedom: to travel light, to trust the narrow way, to allow ourselves to be known , fully and tenderly by the One who is always longing to walk beside us.
- Lilly Pushpam PBVM
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