Many Jews at the time of Jesus thought that salvation was based on external factors, like race and ritual. Many Jews, in fact, believed that only Jews could actually live in communion with God.
The non-Jewish peoples, so they thought, were destined to be second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God. Others believed that you not only needed to be of the Jewish race to win God's favor, but you also had to follow even the most minute details of the Law of Moses, as well as the many ritual practices that had grown up around that Law.
Jesus takes the opportunity of this question, about whether or not many people will be saved, to correct those wrong ideas. He explains that in God's Kingdom there will be people from all four corners of the earth - just as Isaiah had prophesied, and as we heard in the First Reading. So, race had nothing to do with it.
He also explains that many who "ate and drank" with the Lord - in other words, many who followed all the many external rituals that governed Jewish eating and drinking at the time - will be excluded from God's Kingdom. So exterior rituals aren't the ticket either.
But if race and ritual aren't the keys to salvation, what is? It's the heart. Salvation doesn't depend primarily on external appearances, but on friendship with Christ, and that's rooted in our hearts.
The people in his parable who were excluded from the heavenly banquet complained that the Lord had actually taught in their streets. But the Lord answers by telling them, "I do not know where you are from." In other words, they are strangers to him. Maybe they did let him into their streets, but they never let him into their hearts.
Heart to Heart
St Margaret Mary Alacoque was a French nun who lived in the 1600s. She was privileged by God with a series of visions in which Jesus appeared to her and revealed his Sacred Heart. He explained to her that his love for sinners was so great that whenever they ignored it or didn't accept it, he felt as much pain as if someone were driving a thorn into his physical heart.
The Sacred Heart devotion that we have all seen and heard about can trace its beginnings to those apparitions. During one of them, St. Mary asked our Lord a curious question. She asked him to tell her who among his followers in the world at that moment was giving his heart the greatest joy.
His answer was even more curious than the question. He didn't mention any of the famous preachers, or bishops, or even the pope. He didn't mention any of the great intellectuals or aristocrats or missionaries.
He didn't even mention someone who later went on to be canonized. Rather, he told her that the person giving his heart the most joy was a little-known novice instructor in a small convent in the European countryside - someone who was instructing novices how to become good followers of Christ.
What matters to Christ is not drama and fireworks and great achievements; what matters to Christ is the humility and love that are in our hearts.
As Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said: "If you try, you will find it impossible to do one great thing. You can only do many small things with great love." Following Christ is a matter of the heart: his heart reaching out to ours and hoping for a warm welcome.
Fostering Good Desires
Jesus looks beyond appearances and into the heart. This has two practical applications for us. First of all, it teaches us never to judge others by appearances.
Many times, those who seem great or holy on the outside are actually filled with selfishness and arrogance on the inside. And many times, those who seem petty and despicable on the outside are actually filled with humility and wisdom on the inside.
That's why Jesus says, "some are last [in the world's eyes] who will be first [in God's Kingdom], and some are first [in the world's eyes] who will be last [in God's Kingdom]." As a result, if we just go by appearances, we will make rash and maybe even unfair judgments.
Instead, we should follow Christ's lead and give all of our neighbors the same benefit of the doubt that we give to ourselves. We're always making excuses for ourselves; let's be equally quick to make excuses for others. That's part of what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves.
That's the first practical application. Here's the second. Since Jesus looks to the heart, if we want to please him, we should take care of our hearts.
That means encouraging good desires and starving bad desires. Desires pop up inside of us without being invited. We should dwell on the ones that go together well with our friendship with Christ, since they will help us live life to the full. We should turn away from the ones that are self-centered and destructive, since they will interfere with our friendship with Christ.
Today Jesus is going to renew this friendship by giving us his own Sacred Heart in Holy Communion. Let's ask him to make our hearts more like his.