THE NARROW GATE

[The following is a puzzle homily for this 12th Tuesday in Ordinary Time. Today's short gospel - Matthew 7: 6, 12-14] - has the images of pearls and swine and the Narrow Gate. This puzzle came to me last night. It's a first draft  adventure - see where the puzzle takes you.]


He was told in a dream – that - if he wanted to discover the secret of life - he simply had to go to such and such a street – and then enter by the narrow gate!

So he went to such and such a street – only to discover that at least half the gates and then some were narrow.

He didn’t know what to do next. Wait for a further dream? Ask someone? Pray? Go backwards to where he was before he had the dream? Wait for another dream? What now? What next?

He saw benches here and there along both sidewalks of that street, so he sat down to see if some kind of an answer would show up as well. Sometimes it’s smart to sit and pause. Sometimes it’s smart to sit and study. Sometimes it’s smart to stop and go neither backwards nor forwards. So he did that for about an hour.

Next, he took out a pad and pen that he had in his pack to jot down who and what he could see and connect with each gate and each house on the street. Each was numbered. He wished he was told in his dream the correct number for the correct gate.

If a narrow gate opened and someone came outside, he would make a quick pen scratch of the man or woman or child who was coming out or in – add their gate number – and in time he figured he would figure out the right narrow gate, from studying each person who would come and go through each narrow gate.

In three days – by sitting on every bench on both sides of the street – he figured out who was who on the street.

But he still didn’t know the right gate to enter.

Next – to make progress – he would surreptitiously and nonchalantly follow those who came out the narrow gates.

Some were saints; some were sinners. Some traveled light; some carried with them great lots of stuff – lots of packages.

Nobody noticed him. If they did, they might have said to themselves, “Just someone.” or “Just a stranger!”

In about a week he narrowed down the right narrow gate to 3 families – 3 gates.

Each was graceful to strangers. Two offered him a bottle of water. It was just at the beginning of summer. Each were good to kids and stopped to make comments to neighbors. All had sweet smiles.

All three put some green bills in a violin case of a street musician. He played music that brought pauses and applauses.

He would follow them and see how they treated waiters and waitresses – how they treated the person behind the counter in stores – how they let people out ahead of them at doors – and on and on and on.

Finally – he made his choice. It was Narrow Gate number 17. He knocked on the gate nervously. He heard a knob turning and sure enough, the owner opened it up and said, “Hi. I’ve been waiting for you. I saw you on the street lots of times. Welcome. Come into my house. Let me get your something to eat.”