May The Grace, Mercy and Peace of our Lord Jesus be with you and your loved o­nes! We all believe that the Gospel reveals God's truth of salvation to us. Jesus in the Gospel of Luke13, 22-30, speaks in very direct and harsh terms. When a worried listener asked Him, "Sir, will o­nly a few be saved?" Jesus answered, "Try your best to enter the narrow door . . . many who try will not succeed."

Some of us may be surprised to hear such strong statements from the Lord about eternal life. This is so because many of us believe that the Lord is infinitely kind and compassionate. We tell ourselves that when God sees us at the Gate of Heaven, He will feel sorry for us and let us in, Right? He does not want us suffer. He o­nly wants us to enjoy eternal life with Him. And so, because of this some of us would like to believe that most people who have died are in heaven; o­nly very few or even none are suffering eternal damnation in hell. Some of us even believe that "hell" does not exist. Moreover, to many of us, "hell" is an old-fashioned image or concept of a merciless and fierce God who delights in punishing those who do not obey His Laws.

I say here to relax. God is kinder and more compassionate than we have imagined Him to be.

My sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, there is a lot of truth in what we just read about our compassionate and loving God. However, the problem with such a view of God and eternal life is that it is o­nly o­ne sided. Those of us who hold such a view have actually shaped God into what we would like Him to be for our sake and convenience. We have drawn a painless and an ideal image of God of compassion, but have ignored the other side of God, which is His infinite justice too.

The values of compassion and justice are different and should not be confused. About ten years ago, a tragedy shocked Ireland when a man in Dublin gunned down around 20 or so innocent children in a primary school. How do you think the parents of these murdered children would feel if the Judge in the court was very compassionate and set the murderer totally free; without even a day of jail sentence? Would we rejoice in the compassion of the Judge or would we be angry at the Judge for his unjust decision? When God judges each and every o­ne of us, He will be a God of infinite compassion and also infinite Justice. This means that while God would willingly forgive us of our sins, He too in justice, would have to take account of the good and bad we have done in this life. My sisters and brothers, the bottom line of today's Gospel is that Jesus is challenging us to "try hard to enter the narrow door" to eternal life. And if we don't take His words seriously, He may tell us, "Go away, I do not know where you come from." and close the door o­n us. Do you think God's compassion and justice will let this happen to us? In another words, do you think Jesus would take His own words of the Gospel seriously? Whether this will happen to us or not depends a lot o­n how we had lived, am living and will live our Catholic Christian faith in our daily lives.

I have read a very interesting article o­nce about an Archbishop, Nicholas Chia, which I would like to share with each and every o­ne of you who have been the chosen children of The Heavenly Father, each called by name.
Archbishop, Nicholas Chia identified six different types of how we Catholic Christian live our faith. He calls the first type the, "Hatched, matched and dispatched Catholic," the second type the "Cafeteria Catholic," the third type "Anchor Catholic," the fourth type "Private Catholic," the fifth type the "Worldly Catholic," and finally the sixth type the "Catholic Catholic." While the Archbishop o­nly mentioned in passing what each type of Catholic meant, I would like to elaborate o­n them to highlight the truth that many of us do not want to accept or face. But, just before I elaborate o­n each of these six types of Catholics, let it be very clear that while these identification are made, they are not meant to be used to judge anyone else or ourselves into narrow and rigid categories or we would be answerable to God for this act too. These six types of Catholics are simply meant to remind us of how active or passive we have been, in the living out of our Catholic Christian faith.

If we look at these six types of Catholics mentioned, we will see that all the first five types are different ways of not living our faith in an active way that God expects of us. For the first type of Catholic, Archbishop Nicholas calls us the "Hatched, Matched and Dispatched Catholics." are those of us who are the non-practicing Catholics who o­nly come to church for a Baptism, marriage or funeral. They are those of us who would like to call ourselves Catholics, but are actually lapsed. Religion is not important to us. In short, while we believe in God and have not disowned God explicitly, we are not willing to abide by the demands of the faith because God really don't mean much to us. God seems to be a distant, abstract and unreachable.

The second type of Catholic is the "Cafeteria Catholic." They are those of us who pick and choose (like from a menu) what we want to believe and not believe. Our faith is basically lukewarm. The Catholic faith must suit our convenience and if we do not like any teachings of the Church, we will not follow them. Being such a Catholic, we are those who generally feel we have the right to live our faith the way we wish. Very often, the demands of the Church o­n faith and moral issues e.g. attending Sunday Mass, family planning and the like are not our high priority list of important things. Coming late to Mass and not participating in the service does not really bother us. We tell ourselves, while we are not the ideal and model Catholics of our Church, at least we can say that we have not abandoned God."

The third type of Catholic is the "Anchor Catholic." They are those of us who turn to God o­nly when we are in trouble. We are those who worship a "Problem-Solver and Miracle-Worker God." In many ways we "use" God when we need Him and ignore Him when all is well. We basically find life too hectic, too complex and too stressful to cope daily. So, there is little time, attention and energy left for us to focus o­n our faith. Prayer life is down to almost zero except for saying a o­ne Our Father or o­ne Hail Mary before falling off to sleep.

The fourth type of Catholic is the "Private Catholic." They are those of us who are perfectly comfortable with a religion who is satisfied with having "I, Me, Myself and God o­nly." We are generally good and morally upright persons, yet our interest of spreading the faith to others generally does not go beyond our own families. Thus, our interests in the faith and participation in the Church is limited and minimal. In the practice of our faith we are those who come to Mass every Sundays, go to Confession o­nce or twice a year and never turn up or answer invitations from Neighbourhood groups. We often don't even read the Church bulletin because what is happening in the Parish does not interest us.

The fifth type of Catholic is the "Worldly Catholic." They are those of us who believe in God, but whose preoccupation in life is o­n acquiring more wealth, power and prestige in our profession. We are those who are very class conscious and are willing to spend lavishly o­n material things, but immediately become calculative when we are approached for funds. We are the type who feels that God and our private lives should be kept separate. Indeed, we generally believe that religion should be reserved for retired holy men and women who have nothing else better to do in life.

Finally, we have the sixth type of Catholic called the "Catholic Catholic." These are those of us who not o­nly take our faith seriously, but we even teach and bring up our children to love the faith and the Church. They are those whom you generally see participating actively in various activities in the Church. However, in being active, they do not claim to be holier and better than others. They realise how blessed they are and how good God has truly been to them. And so, out of love and gratitude to God they try to serve the Church and live an active faith in whatever ways they can. You can count o­n them to support the Church generously and selflessly. They truly try to live the Gospel values daily and also try to take their prayer life seriously.

My sisters and brothers, as I was describing the different types of Catholics, I am sure each of us was able to identify how in different ways we have been active or passive in the way we have lived or am living our faith today. While we believe that God is full of compassion and is willing to forgive us at all times, we must not forget that He is also a God of infinite Justice.

And so, as I conclude, let us not forget that Jesus, through this word of God in Gospel of Luke, is challenging us to take our Catholic Christian faith more seriously and not to take our relationship with God for granted. For to take our faith and Our Lord for granted is to risk ourselves finding Our Lord closing the door to heaven o­n us and telling us, "Go away from me. I do not know where you come from."