Daily Gospel Reflection for June 21, 2022

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Reflection by Margaret Ann Stimatz

Today's Gospel: Matthew 7:6, 12-24

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.”

My life was unraveling. The path that opened before me was a squeeze. I was told I was free—free to return to the old: the broad, the all-too-familiar destruction and gloom. Or, free to go forward, to stick with this narrowness and see where it might lead. Many voices clamored. Stay with this, the voices said, this is the road that leads to life. “Would you consider going back to the church of your childhood?” the voices queried. More constricting, more squeezing. Back-sliding, I was finding it hard to breathe. Let go, the voices said, let go. And return, they said.

I did return. I discovered that someone had opened this path ahead of me. Someone was leading me: One who had gone this way before, bleeding beneath a cross vicious and cruel. Follow me, He kept saying, and I did. Tripping, backsliding, staggering. Sometimes creeping and whining.

I keep on following and the narrow path continues to squeeze, to lessen my grip on pleasures, conveniences, comforts, and old ways of thinking. What formerly I’d thought sweet I’ve come to shun as bitter. What I had considered bitter I’m now perceiving as sweet: humility, self-denial, surrender. Follow Me, follow Me, He keeps calling: My yoke is easy, My burden light. My company is sweetness itself.

Ponder:

What is inhibiting my progress along the narrow way?

Pray:

Jesus, help me when I stumble and backslide. Remind me that Your narrow way is the only road that leads to a life worth living.

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Enter through the narrow gate that leads to life. #dailygospel

Copyright 2022 Margaret Ann Stimatz