Sermon on the Range with Fr. Bryce Lungren
(August 24th Sunday Homily)
Readings:
Reading 1 — Isaiah 66:18-21
Psalm — Psalm 117:1, 2
Reading 2 — Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
Gospel — Luke 13:22-30
Transcript:
Pretty challenging gospel this morning. We can all testify to that and the age-old question, how many will be saved? Will there be a few or many? And our Lord resides, strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. Then he goes on to describe what it’s like to not make it into the kingdom of God. Not fun scenario to envision, but also, maybe, not one that we have to just kind of like, geez, am I going to make it or not? There is kind of a virtue in the middle.
We want to take this gospel very seriously. Lord, speak to my heart. Where are we at here? The verse lies in the middle and maybe the two extremes are one just, oh man, am I gonna make it am I gonna make it all through life and then the other extreme is all dogs go to heaven. Here is the spectrum. Where’s the virtue? In the middle.
I want to take our Lord’s word seriously, but we also want to like go through life with a confidence and a faith and a trust in in God. We can’t have that as Catholics because for Catholics salvation is not arbitrary. It’s not necessarily straight up guaranteed, but it’s not also arbitrary as where I am in this spectrum of salvation. We would just say, if we are in full communion with the Catholic Church, we can have a confident assurance of our salvation. The Church that Christ founded on apostolic foundations, which we have tagged Catholic because it’s universal, is the ship of salvation.
For in the pews, in full communion with that ship that’s sailing to heaven, we can have a confidence in our salvation. Not to say we can’t jump overboard through sin and things of the like. We’re capable of that through our free will. But, if I’m in full communion, I can have peace. I’m confident that we’re heading to salvation. That’s teachings of the church, in the way I’m phrasing it.
It is true, if I’m in full communion, be at peace. Now full communion, is more than just receiving the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, Holy Communion, the sacraments of initiation. It’s more than that. It’s living a life of grace. Our Lord testifies to that. He says in various ways, for some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last. Just because I’m in the pews or profess to be Catholic doesn’t necessarily mean it’s guaranteed. I have to be practicing it. I have to be living it. I have to be in a state of grace. If I’m in full communion, which does constitute with it, being in a state of grace, then again, be at peace.
What is a state of grace? Broad parameters we’d call the precepts of the Church. Going to Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, going to confession once a year, helping contribute to the tithing of the Church, and fasting obligations. I blinked on the last one. I always do. Marriage isn’t actually it. That’s the sixth one that’s not part of it. It’ll come to me somewhere throughout this homily.
Those are four. There’s a fifth one. These are broad parameters of how I can know if I’m in a state of grace and full communion with the Catholic Church. Be at peace. Enjoy life. Strive to continue to enter the narrow gate by remaining in full communion with the Church. It’s not enough. It’s enough for maybe our salvation. Great.
We’re called to spread the good news. Okay, what’s the Psalmist say today? Go out to all the world and tell the good news. We’re called to evangelize. Think of our Lord’s great commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel. Go to all the nations, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. That’s the great commission for all of us, not just priests, all of us.
It’s kind of fun in this first reading, that this first reading from Isaiah, our Lord’s basically commissioning people to go out and spread the good news, tell of his salvation. He says, come, I will gather nations of every language. I will set a sign over them. From them, I will send fugitives to the nations. The fugitives are the guys that go out and tell the good news. Kind of a fun word, right? We’re called to be fugitives to go and share the gospel. Maybe just to kind of narrow that down in the line of what we’re talking about, let’s just say, full communion with the Catholic Church. I can have a security of my salvation. Not that it’s said and done, but I can be confident in that.
How about just inviting people into the church? Like, hey, have you considered Catholicism? I think that’s an invitation. It’s not easy really to evangelize all the time. It’s kind of hard for us to kind of venture into those waters. Maybe just that kind of soft swing, softball kind of invitation, hey, have you ever considered Catholicism? If so, we are having OCIA classes starting Sunday, September 28th. They’re gonna be at 10:30 after the Sunday morning mass. Come and see is an invitation. Here’s what full communion with Catholic Church is like.
I would invite us all to that. That’s our call as disciples. It’s our call at Mass. Go and announce the gospel of the Lord. I would just take it seriously and I would really narrow it in. I invite all of you to invite somebody that you know this week and just ask them, have you ever considered Catholicism? Just leave it at that. If no, fine. If so, hey, just so you know, we’re having these classes starting in September after the nine o’clock mass. If you want to know more about it, if you want to join the Church, whatever, invitation. We’re called to that.
If we really take seriously that this is the ship of salvation, if I’m in the pews, full communion, state of grace, I can have a confidence in my salvation and God’s grace can work through me and help me to thrive in this life. We want to share that. We want to participate in it. We want to share it. I just ask all of us to ask somebody else if they’ve considered Catholicism. Just a little invitation for all of us to invite someone else into the fullness of Christianity, which is the Catholic Church.
We thank our Lord for this gospel that does challenge us today. We don’t want to gloss over it. We want to constantly wear a hat in this spectrum of salvation. I just say full communion, state of grace, actively participating in the Church, be at peace. We can have a confidence in our salvation. Thank God for that reality. We thank God for the gift of His Church. We ask for the grace to strive always to enter by the narrow gate.
