Striving Is Struggling!

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Rom 8:26-30; Lk 13:22-30

Today’s Gospel invites us to explore what it means to strive through the narrow door.

Our ideas of discipleship often differ from person to person. Many of us might believe that discipleship means developing familiarity with the Lord. Some of us may be satisfied with some external gestures that might border on mere tokenism. For some others, being practical about religion is an acceptable approach, though it might not mean anything beyond lukewarmness. 

But by using the word ‘narrow door,’ Jesus challenges our very idea of discipleship and calls us towards a deeper commitment.

At first, Jesus shows what the narrow door does not mean and later gives us an idea of what it actually means.

What Narrow Door Is Not: Though familiarity with the Lord is a good starting point, if it fails to outgrow shallow acquaintance, it will not meet the definition of discipleship. In other words, superficial familiarity cannot explain the faithfulness that discipleship implies. An easy-going approach towards Christian vocation fails to reflect the nobleness of such an invitation. In sum, familiarity claims and casual acquaintances are not what Jesus looked for in his disciples. 

What Narrow Door Is: For Jesus, the narrow door means to willingly accept the struggle to follow the Lord in the path he has shown and walked ahead. A meticulous following of the Lord demands that we transcend a life of casual familiarity and prove our moral integrity by letting such familiarity with the Lord shape our hearts, choices, and way of life. For this reason, the word ‘strive’ implies a struggle, similar to what an athlete would undergo in terms of disciplining him or her. In sum, Jesus invites us to strive not out of fear but out of love, as it captures the profundity of the Christian vocation that we have embraced. 

Knowing Jesus is to love him. Accepting him is to walk in his footsteps. Worshiping him is to live like him. 

Let us pray that, as the disciples of Jesus, we may ever strive to imitate Jesus, though it means entering through the narrow door. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar