In this commentary on the Gospel, Friar Luciano Audisio reflects on the narrow gate as a sign of the Paschal passage that transforms us from within, purifying our “inner city” and leading us to the Jerusalem of God.
Jesus passing through towns and villages
Today’s Gospel shows us Jesus “passing through cities and villages” (Καὶ διεπορεύετο κατὰ πόλεις καὶ κώμας), on his way to Jerusalem. This is not a geographical datum without more. In Scripture, the “passage” refers to the Passover (פסח), to the passage from slavery to freedom. Where Jesus passes through, Easter happens: God visits history, touches the wounds and opens paths of life. Also today he wants to pass through the “city” of our heart.
The city in the Bible
The Bible narrates a great journey: from the city of Cain to the heavenly Jerusalem. The city, from its origins, is marked by ambivalence: a refuge from fear and, at the same time, a symbol of anonymity, self-sufficiency and violence. Nineveh, Babylon… places where relationships break down and man loses himself and others.
But the Son of God enters into this wounded history: he travels through our “cities,” those interior and social spaces where we live together without meeting, and transforms them into places of communion. In the end, the Bible shows us the new Jerusalem that descends from heaven, the dwelling of God with mankind, the triumph of communion over isolation.
The teaching of Jesus
As he walks, the text says that Jesus goes about “teaching” (διδάσκων). In the Bible, to teach is not to transfer data; it is to leave a mark, to engrave something in the heart and mind to the point of shaping life.
That is why Jesus is the Master: his teaching is his person, his way of looking, of touching, of meeting, of spending life to the extreme. To learn from him is to let his love remake us from within.
The big question
Then resounds a question that inhabits us all: “Lord, are few saved?Lord, are there few who are saved?” (κύριε, εἰ ὀλίγοι οἱ σωζόμενοι;). Jesus does not respond with numbers; he shifts the focus and invites us to enter through the narrow gate (στενῆς θύρας). Salvation is not a matter of statistics, but of decision and journey.
The gate is narrow because it lets only the true pass through; because what belongs to the city of Cain – injustice, violence, indifference, pride of self-sufficiency – does not fit into the new life.
“Injustice workers” (ἐργάται ἀδικίας) cannot enter, not because God closes, but because those works are not compatible with the Kingdom.
Salvation as a paschal passage
Salvation is a paschal passage: death and resurrection. To enter into Christ is to allow him to engrave his teaching in our hearts, to transform us from within. It implies dying to what we have been before, to our old logics of judging, possessing, dominating, to be reborn in the way of Jesus: to serve, to reconcile, to share.
It is not a question of annihilating us, but of purifying us. In the heavenly Jerusalem enters everything in us that is wounded and yet still desires God; everything that resembles Abel, the small, the fragile, that which cries out for justice.
What responds to Cain – the violence that breaks communion, the anonymity that depersonalizes us – will remain outside, like old skin that can no longer contain the new wine.
The narrow door in everyday life
This does not happen only at the end of time. It begins here and now. Every time we renounce a violent response, every time we choose encounter over anonymity, every time we ask for forgiveness and make reparation, Easter happens in us.
The narrow door takes the concrete form of the everyday: a difficult dialogue that I dare to have, a reconciliation that I stop postponing, a real time of prayer, a visit to the sick, a silent help to the one who cannot give me anything back, a word that sustains instead of destroying.
Questions for our heart
Perhaps today we can ask ourselves: which parts of my “inner city” need the Lord’s visit? Where are there streets of anonymity, squares of indifference, walls of rancor?
What attitudes don’t “pass” through the door: harsh judgments, gossip, double life, selfishness at home, indifference to the poor?
And, at the same time, what traits of Abel live in me and Jesus wants to bring to fullness: a thirst for justice, meekness, a desire to pray, a need to reconcile?
The door opened by Christ
The Lord does not ask of us heroic deeds, but fidelity in small things. The door is narrow, yes, but it is open; and he is the one who opens it. We do not enter alone: we enter with Jesus, who is the door and the way.
He does not humiliate the wounded: he takes it, heals it, elevates it. He does not crush our desires: he purifies them and enlarges them to the measure of love.
Today Jesus passes through our community. Let us allow his Word to mark us from within. Let us enter through the narrow door of truth, mercy and justice.
Let us ask for the grace to leave the city of Cain – the logic of fear, anonymity and injustice – and to walk towards the Jerusalem of God, where every face is recognized, every wound is healed and every life becomes communion.
In this way, step by step, may salvation continue to take place in us, until God is all in all.