21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C (August 24, 2025)

Today’s readings teach us about the universality of God’s kingdom. Keeping in mind that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and the fulfillment of his mission through his Passion, Death and Resurrection, today’s Gospel helps us to see the larger picture of God’s plan of salvation.

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out.”

That sounds harsh. What is Jesus saying here? First, note that someone who had obviously been listening closely to Jesus asked a question out of concern that his message was perhaps too narrow and unattainable. Jesus seized upon that with his image of the narrow gate. The way of Christ requires total commitment. Casually eating and drinking with Jesus is not enough. Table fellowship with Jesus requires eating with the lowly: 

“And people will come from the east and the west and form the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Jesus will develop that table teaching in next week’s Gospel on the heavenly banquet. But what’s significant here is the revelation that the way of Christ is much bigger than previously held notions of an exclusive “Chosen People.”

Through the faith of Abraham, God entered into a covenant with the people of Israel, making them a people peculiarly his own. This covenant is still in effect, and the Catholic Church acknowledges that liturgically in the Good Friday intercessions. The importance of this covenant cannot be understated: that the Almighty and unseen Creator God would enter into an intimate relationship with the people he created. Jesus expanded the notion of Chosen People, and this teaching is underscored in today’s First Reading from Isaiah:

“Thus says the Lord: I have come to gather nations of every language . . . To the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame or seen my glory. . . they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.”

Today’s Responsorial Psalm from Psalm 117 also proclaims this teaching: “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”