PRIEST: Jesus challenges any temptation to complacency: we do not have an automatic ticket into the Kingdom. Everyday, we need to say ‘YES’ again to entering by the narrow gate of Christ’s radical and universal love. That we come often to Mass, that we pray frequently, that we keep the Catholic rules – none of these of themselves brings us to salvation – the narrow gate is simply to love – to love more and more deeply, more and more widely, more and more courageously! And to open wide our heart to all peoples sharing the universal love of God. In the end nothing else really matters – just opening wide our heart as God does! Let us seek forgiveness for our failures to place love above all else in our lives.
READER: When we are tempted to do the minimum required,
…settling for the opposite of a life motivated by love!
LORD HAVE MERCY…
For every exclusiveness of heart
that excludes others from our concern or our community;
that thinks we alone are special…
CHRIST HAVE MERCY…
When we treat prayer and worship like a divine insurance policy,
seeking a false sense of security,
dulling our openness to faith, love, radical change …
LORD HAVE MERCY…
PRIEST: May the God of Universal Love,
forgive all narrowness of heart among us;
May Jesus, brother to all peoples and races,
break down the barriers that divide;
May the Spirit of Divine Love open the narrow gate
of ever-expanding love in our hearts;
and bring all the earth’s people into everlasting life
AMEN!