Pope Francis says that God’s heart is “demanding” even as it is open to all.
The Holy Father said this Sunday before praying the midday Angelus, as he commented on the day’s Gospel, in which Jesus invites us to “strive to enter through the narrow gate.”
Jesus does not want to delude us, saying, “Yes, be calm, it’s easy, there is a nice highway and at the end, a big door…”. … It is a “narrow door” because it is demanding, love is always demanding, it requires commitment, rather, “effort,” that is a decisive and persistent will to live in accordance with the Gospel. Saint Paul calls it “the good fight of the faith” (1Timothy 6: 12). It takes effort all day, every day to love God and our neighbor.
To be recognized by Jesus at the end of our lives, we must establish a true Communion with him, the pope said: “praying, going to Church, partaking in the Sacraments and nourishing ourselves with His Word.”
“This,” he said, “keeps us in faith, nourishes our hope, revives charity. And in this way, with God’s grace, we can and we must spend our life for the good of our brothers, fighting against every form of evil and injustice.”
The pope concluded by encouraging us with the example of the Blessed Mother, referring to her again as he did last week, as the Gate of Heaven. She is there waiting for us to arrive, and has “passed through the narrow gate that is Jesus.”
Let us invoke her as the Gate of Heaven… a gate that follows exactly the form of Jesus: the gate of the heart of God, a heart that is demanding, but open to all.
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