DAILY GRACE
June 23, 2020, Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time
Scripture: Matthew 7:12-14
‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
““For the gate is narrow . . . that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Mary Martha Moss writes in a devotion on this text: “As I was making my daily commute one day, it hit me that I was actually living this Gospel. I was trying to catch the Staten Island Ferry, and the terminal workers were ready to close the doors to the crowd going into Manhattan. At a certain point, they must secure the area and make sure it is safe for the ferry to leave port. As the wide-open glass doors that separate the terminal (where I was) from the ferry (where I wanted to be) started to close, I and all the other late-comers broke into an all-out run. We made it just in time.
“Once inside the safety zone, panting, I thought, ‘That was a real, visceral feeling of the narrow gate!’ I was focused on getting through that door. Nothing could distract me from my goal.”
Have you ever experienced that kind of situation? I’m sure you have. Hastening to make it just in time before the door closes. . . whether it’s a ferryboat, a deadline, or a golden opportunity —— when all other worries take second place to the only thing that matters. That one all-consuming concern engages our entire being. Moss writes, “In these experiences I think the Lord wants to actually show us how concerned he would like us to feel about the gate and the road that leads to life. Nothing else in the world can measure up to this in importance or urgency.”
Which makes me ask: What path shall I take today? Will I take the way that gives life and shares it, that does to others “as you would have them do to you”? Am I grateful to those who “hold the doors” and help me through life with their patience, kindness, or ability to overlook my foibles? How will I today hold the doors for others to enter this all-important way of life?
Prayer
Lord, thank you for your word set forth in today’s Gospel. I can get so distracted from the important things in life, sometimes not seeing the forest for the trees. You are my blessed Gate whom the Father sent to bring life. Help me to find the way you would have me walk today. Travel with me and help me to open the Gate for others.
Contemplation
“Do to others as you would have them to do you.”
Citation from: Mary Martha Moss, devotion in Ordinary Grace, Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time, Paulist Press.