Fr.Martin Chittadiyil V.C.
“Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord you God, obeying him, and holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Two persons are interested in our lives. One is God, the other is satan. God waits for our response: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me” (Revelation 3:16). satan is also after us: “And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7).
We cannot open the door of our hearts for both God and Satan and entertain them at the same time. We can serve only one master. “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Mathew 6:24). We can not place one leg in heaven and the other in hell. Either we must take the boat that goes to heaven or the boat that goes to hell. It is dangerous to place legs in two boats.
Somehow, we have to make a fundamental option in our lives. Before making any smart choice we may ask what do they offer us, because we know choices have consequences. When Jesus knocks at our door what does he offer? When satan knocks at our door what does he offer? About the packages they offer Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
“The Light of the World” is a popular painting by Willam Holman Hunt. He presents the figure of Jesus with a lamp preparing to knock on a closed door. The door has no handle on the outside and therefore can be only opened from within. The door is a symbol of our lives or hearts. We are free to keep the door of heart locked, leaving the Divine Guest on the doorstep, or, if we choose, free to let him enter into our lives.
Jesus is standing outside the door like a gentle guest. He will not beat it down, nor show any anger, nor pass through the locked door as he did after his resurrection when he visited his disciples in the Upper Room. He does not want to impose himself against our will.
“It was God who created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the power of their own free choice” (Sirach 15:14). The gentle tap is an invitation Jesus makes for eternal life, “If you hear my voice and open the door….”
Jesus is waiting for the response of our sleeping soul. He may knock gently but he will also knock persistently. How long will he have to knock? Is he knocking in vain? The answers are with us.
“Therefore, as the Holy Sprit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years” (Hebrews 3:7-9).
