The Gate

Where is the Gate?

Roads hold the promise of a direction and gates signal an arrival. We all know that life has many roads and gates. As far as the way to paradise, we live with a sense that it is a matter of getting from here to there and the opening to Heaven will be known by its Pearly Gates.

So it is that we live our days with our hearts set on passing from this life to the next, hoping to find when we die a magnificent Gate, maybe even one made of precious pearls.

Yet Jesus says that the road to life is rough and its gate narrow, and that there are few who find it.

Jesus said as well “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

He is then the road and the gate.

Many look this day for variations of easier roads and finely crafted gates. And it is understandable that they look down the road a piece for something shining in the distance, something wondrous that will open to them.

It is hard to love. It is hard to be that vulnerable to each other, be it in marriage, friendship, community life, an office, a ride on a bus. There are claims galore on our time, our hearts, our energies, our imaginations.

The Spirit dwells in our hearts. We hear these words every day in their liturgical context and they remind us that we embody a road and a gate. The Gate to life opens a bit when we risk all that we can be and do for each other. The road is eased when we help each other walk it.

I think it is that simple – yet at the same time, that difficult.

We look for pearls and God constantly gives us each other.