Lot couldn’t believe his ears!! ..“Was Abram really offering him the choice of any of land that was before them? Could he really be so foolish?!! The land surrounding the Jordan was so lush and bountiful! Surely Abram wasn’t naive enough to think that, he, Lot would choose the less fertile land of Canna and offer him the valley of Jordan? But then who am I to question my luck when Abram is being so magnanimous? It’s best to take him at his word! After-all one has a duty to think of one’s self and one’s family first…”

Do these thoughts sound familiar? Is this not what the world and our flesh teach us? To look out for number one!! To look out for our own self-interest first, not care for the other person. We know how the story of Lot ends, fixing his eyes on the wealth of the land he ventures closer and closer to Sodom& Gomorrah and soon he is living in the sinful city of Sodom. Ultimately he loses everything including his wife as he flees from the destruction of those cities.

Yet we see Abram taking a totally different approach. He has now journeyed with God for many years. The first reading says ‘he is a rich man’, but he know the source of his blessing, he knows that he owes all he has not to the bountifulness of the land, but rather to the grace and mercy of God, who has always been faithful to him. Abrams eyes are fixed on God and not on the land. And God blesses him even more, making him the father of the nations. In the Gospel proclamation we see the Lord Jesus extol the disciples to walk through the narrow gate. This is not the gate that our flesh longs to tread, nor is it the gate that the world around us tells us we must walk through in order to gain success. The very fact it is called “narrow”implies it is not an easy way to tread, we are asked to conform ourselves to the narrowness of the gate in order to get through. It is a path of self denial, a path of sacrifice, a path where we are called to experience death to our own nature. Yet it is that very experience of death which leads us to happiness and fullness of life.

Prayer:Abba Father I come fixing my eyes upon you. Lord show me your ways so I may walk in them. Amen