Surrounded

"Forget whatever God has said. Just give up and go along with everyone else. If you don’t, things will turn out very badly for you."

That essentially is the message Hezekiah receives in today’s first reading, as an incredibly large army surrounds him. Hezekiah then pleads with God, the Lord answers through the prophet Isaiah, and 185,000 enemy soldiers drop dead while the mighty despot who had mocked Hezekiah’s faith runs for his life.

We like this kind of story: people ask for help, the awesome power of the Lord God does glorious things, and the people live happily every after.

But Isaiah’s prophecy also speaks of “a remnant” and “survivors” coming from Jerusalem. Indeed, not long after the time of Hezekiah, disaster came, Jerusalem fell and the remnant of the people of God were carried off into exile. This is not the kind of story we like.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus also speaks in terms of a remnant, specifically that few find the gate and the road to life.

We may be discouraged by such a message. We may also be discouraged by what we see and hear in the world around us. We might be very discouraged by where we are in life. Our window of opportunity for happiness might seem very narrow indeed, and sometimes we may feel that it has closed.

But Jesus says, “I am the Gate” and “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”

If we stay faithful to Christ and let Him keep us close to Himself, then we can survive and flourish and rejoice, for He is with us and no matter what may happen to us or around us – glorious or disastrous – His steadfast love will fill us and surround us forever.