Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 24, 2025
Is 66:18-21 | Heb 12:5-7, 11-13 | Lk 13:22-30
Who is saved? Jesus was asked if the saved will be many or a few. “You might be surprised,” Jesus responds. Don’t be too sure of yourself.
There is a door in this week’s Gospel story; it is open for some and closed for others. Strangely, those who are the most confident of entering the house find themselves locked out. Others, from the North, South, East and West — total strangers to me, are going through that door.
Me? No room for me! But why? How can this be? I am a good person; I obey the laws, pray, don’t make trouble. Yes, I am not perfect, make mistakes, sometimes say cruel things or put others down. All in all, I think I deserve entry.
Who are those who are getting in? I don’t know anything about them.
Or, is that the point? I could know them, but don’t. Am I acquainted with “other” people, those who are different from me, those who live down the street, in another part of the country? Across the border? Those who don’t look like me? Who speak a different language, worship or dress in another way? Does it matter if I know them or care about them? Is that what is expected?
Maybe!
Saint Paul informs the Hebrews that God disciplines, that suffering is part of our training. We ask why God allows the heartbreaking pain and suffering we and too many others, endure. Is suffering and trauma a test, a punishment? Are tornados God’s punishment for our sins? Is lack of care for the environment a sin? The idea that God punishes “evil doers,” (usually they are those we dislike or disagree with), is quite consoling. But, again, be careful, because we hear that God is sorting, sifting, separating.
If not God, then who is responsible for violence, abuse, war? Do we blame those “other” people? Are we in some way responsible for suffering? Do others suffer and die because of my actions, words, or silence?
We also hear in this week’s readings that God wishes our well-being, joy, peace and justice, that we be able to hold up limp arms and steady trembling knees, and God offers the possibility of a new heaven and a new earth, life lived to the fullest.
A neighbor when I lived in Tanzania, lost her husband and a child to AIDS. She told me that before those deaths, God had loved her family. Suffering such loss meant for her that God had abandoned them and/or was punishing her. While some lost faith and hope through AIDS, others in the community cared for children whose parents had died from the disease. Women in the parish carried the sick on their backs to a hospital where some kind of relief might be available.
We know people who have experienced tragic losses, fires, tornados, bombings, their young children shot at school, who have moved through their grief to be sources of comfort and strength for others. Healing and new life are possible in the midst of trauma, pain, disaster. With the understanding, support and comfort of others in these highly challenging situations we can grow stronger, reach out to others, with a fuller appreciation of self and others, live a new heaven and a new earth. Do not be discouraged, we are advised in the letter to the Hebrews.
These “others” from the North, East, South, and West, are my neighbors, brothers and sisters. Do I know them, really? Respect them? We suffer together, hope together, and are saved together.
Maryknoll Sister Connie Krautkremer served extensively in Tanzania beginning in 1969 in various ministries, educating and empowering women and adolescent girls in rural villages. She returned to the Sisters Center in Ossining, New York, in 2016.
To read other Scripture reflections published by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, click here.
Featured image: Maryknoll Sister Connie Krautkremer (wearing glasses) served women in Tanzania until 2015. (Courtesy of Connie Krautkremer/Tanzania)
