Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, C
Isaiah 66:18-21
Ps. 117
Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13
Luke 13:22-30

The readings coincide today at the “ingathering of the nations.” The First Reading speaks of this ingathering as taking place on Mount Zion, which will inaugurate the “world to come.” In the Gospel, Jesus warns that the kingdom has a “narrow door,” which the Church has interpreted to be Christ Himself. All are invited to this feast, but “some who are last will be first, and some first who will be last.” The Psalm, which uses a New Testament verse (Mk 16:15) as its refrain, “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News,” is quoted by St. Paul in Romans as an example of God’s wish to redeem all of humanity in Jesus Christ.

Today’s Second Reading talks about envisioning trials in our lives as “the discipline of God, who deals with you as sons.” Whether our own trials are persecution for the sake of Christ, or temporary setbacks in our ways, we hear the words of the Letter, “at the time administered, all discipline seems a cause for grief…but later it brings forth the fruit of peace and justice to those trained in its school.”

This hymn is based on today’s Scriptures:
From ev'ry side the faithful come
From nations far, from tribes unknown
To take their places at the feast
And sing hosannas fore the throne.

There some will try to enter in
With expectations of a place
And find the door is barred to them
Who lived, defiant of God's grace.

Disdain not, then, the Lord's reproach;
Make straight the path with willing hand,
For thus will come the fruit of peace,
And we shall in God's Kingdom stand.

LM
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