Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time C 2010
Open the door! Maybe you locked your keys inside because you were in a hurry.
Open the door! A brother shoves his sister in the dark closet and blocks the door.
Open the door! A sister throws a water balloon at her brother and she locks herself in the bathroom for safety.
Open the door! An alcoholic husband is locked outside. His wife is fearful that he will beat her.
In life, there are many reasons why we are on the other side of the door and locked out.
Isn’t it funny that it takes great strength and tools to tear down a massive door but it only takes a small piece of metal to open the door?
At times, keys seem special like our first set of car keys or the keys to our first house. We use keys so frequently that we often fail to give them much consideration. Jesus is like a key in different respects. Jesus is unassuming and unpretentious. You cannot tell at first sight what treasures, if any, a key allows the holder to access. At first sight, Jesus seems rather common but like a key Jesus allows access to something significant.
When Jesus died on the cross, we read the sanctuary curtain ripped in two. The area that few people had access to was now open for all people. This was foretold in today’s first reading when the prophet speaks about the nations seeing the Lord’s glory and that God will choose them to be his priests.
Like a key, sometimes our faith can be misplaced. With the many things in our purses, those keys can remain hidden and we must take everything out while we search.
Keys must be carefully guarded otherwise people have access to our car, our house, or our money. Jesus the key promises us eternal life, but we must guard the key otherwise we will be locked out. It’s not enough for us to loudly announce that we have a key because one day the key that we take for granted may not work. Our spouse or our boss changed the locks and the key that we were sure about doesn’t fit anymore. Or our pockets may develop holes in them and the keys fall out.
Jesus warns us not to misplace our keys otherwise, we will shout “let me in, let me in.” God will not say, “not by the hair of my chinny chin chin.” Instead, God will say depart from me for I do not know you.
May this Eucharist keep us from crying out, “Open the door!”