I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father, except through me.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 13:22-30, today's readings).

"And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."

As Jesus passes through towns and villages, someone asks him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answers them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough." Jesus tells a parable where people knock on the door of the master's house and say to him, "Lord, open the door for us." He will say to them, Jesus tells the people, "I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!" If we are not strong enough, and we are not strong enough, Jesus supplies our strength even as he disciplines through trials. As Saint Paul says, "All discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it."

Father in heaven, even as I live in the midst of your discipline, I struggle to understand how and why it is necessary. Give me the grace to accept that any discipline I experience is a means of sanctifying me for the sake of your glory. When I discern your will and yet resist carrying it out, strengthen me to move forward not with earthly sight but with the sight of faith in your love and mercy. "I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord," the Gospel acclamation says, "no one comes to the Father, except through me." Make straight my path, Lord!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.