In today’s Gospel the story is told of how one of Jesus’ followers asks him if many or only a few will be saved. Jesus does not give a direct answer.

At first reading of this Sunday’s Gospel, we might be seriously wondering what Jesus is talking about. We all thought that Jesus came to this world as a “Prince of Peace”.

The Gospel reading for this Sunday invites us to be ready and dressed for action. We remember the Gospel from last Sunday, where the rich man, seeing the bumper harvest he had, thinks of building bigger barns and store all the wealth to himself and doesn’t even give a second thought of sharing it with the other.

To borrow a story from a good friend of mine, Fr Bel San Luis, SVD, there was a man who wanted to have a lot of money so badly that he promised the devil to do his work in exchange for a copy of the newspaper a day ahead before it was published so that he could get the winning Lotto number in advance.

There is no second-guessing, the current life-style of many Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is a battle ground for people who care. Who else in the world is suffering from dispossession, relocation and separation without having to leave their country? You don’t need to visit off-shore detention centres to feel the misery of a people longing for full liberation.

The massive challenges facing the first peoples of this land are far from over. Like everyone else on this planet, the needs are real because the people are real. The ministry today is absolutely hard yakka for anyone willing to have a crack at it.

Prayer and our relationship with God has always been a great mystery to me as a Christian and as a priest.

A contractor needed one more man to chop down trees for export. One day, two men appeared willing to do the job but only one could be employed so what the contractor did was to put the two men to a test, they were to chop down as many trees as they could in an eight-hour shift and the man who chopped down more trees got the job.

The readings in today's liturgy from the prophet Isaiah, from St. Paul and St Luke the evangelist, speak about people with character.

A number of years ago I “concelebrated” a wedding with a Baptist Minister. My cousin was marrying a girl who was a devout Baptist and whose parents were active in their Baptist Community.

After the resurrection of Jesus the disciples hid themselves behind locked doors for fear of the authorities. Now one can lock oneself in a room because one believes that the world is unfriendly and hostile, and so prevent the world from entering the room, but then one also can’t get out. Since the crucifixion the disciples had bunched together behind locked doors in fear and anxiety. It must have been like hell.

However there is a way out of this terrible fear. Into this room of trapped people comes Jesus with his gift of peace and he says, “Peace be with you”.