Homily for the twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Attention: this homily contains spoilers. A few years ago, Ted Danson and Kristen Bell stared in a comedy on NBC called “The Good Place.” The premise was that Kristen Bell’s character, Eleanor Shellstrop, had died and in the afterlife ended up in the “Good Place.” The only problem was that Eleanor was a shallow and selfish person. There had apparently been a mix-up in the calculations—points were awarded for good actions and subtracted for bad ones—and she had been confused with a much better woman also named Eleanor who happened to die at exactly the same moment. After not too long, Eleanor realizes that there had been an error and that she needs to hide her true identity to avoid being sent to the Bad Place, where she belongs. Since she had spent her whole life being petty, mean, and vulgar, she has no idea how to act and keeps slipping up and almost blowing her cover.
The show presents a picture of a very common understanding of heaven. It is a pleasant place, a never-ending vacation, tailored to the preferences—dietary, decorating, recreational—of its inhabitants. It is more or less religiously neutral; it’s a reward for good behavior, that’s it. In fact, though there are angels in the show—including Michael, played by Ted Danson—God is not mentioned at all. If you watch the show in light of Christian revelation—the way the Gospel talks about heaven—you figure out pretty quickly that the Good Place is most certainly not heaven. Understanding where the show goes wrong can help us to understand a bit better what makes the Christian offer of heaven so unique and surprising, and it can also help us to understand Jesus’ admonitory words in the Gospel today.
Jesus is asked point blank about how many are saved. If his answer sounds restrictive, you heard it correctly. He doesn’t give a number but responds instead, “Enter through the narrow gate.” Many will attempt to enter, he says, but fail. Every once in a while, in Christian history, the heresy of “universalism” pops up—the idea that everyone, even including the devil, will be saved—but such a belief is not compatible with the teachings of Jesus. Hell exists, and it is not empty. Jesus does not, however, give an exact count of its population. Historically, theologians have argued that the Lord’s choice not to give a number is deliberate. If the number were too high—if he said, say, 80% will be saved—then we’d take salvation for granted and get lazy. This is known as the sin of “presumption” and, it seems to me, is very common today. Jesus’ response—“Enter through the narrow gate”—of course, does not suggest a high percentage. However, theologians have also pointed out that if Jesus had given a number that seemed too low for heaven’s population—say 1%—then most of us would give up—the sin of “despair.” Probably only the extremely egotistical would even try. If the number were too exact, we’d worry there wouldn’t be space enough for us and might try to elbow others out of the way so they wouldn’t take our spot. That would be the reaction of Eleanor Shellstrop but not of a Christian.
In fact, Jesus plays no role whatsoever in the show “The Good Place.” Instead, there’s just a complicated angelic bureaucracy. What Jesus teaches about the afterlife is not religiously neutral at all. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” he says, “no one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). What Jesus promises is a new way of relating to the Father through him. A particular kind of relationship with Jesus and his Father, in other words, defines what heaven is. Heaven is not a better place, like Earth 2.0, but where ice cream doesn’t make you fat and your credit card bills don’t ever come due. Salvation will involve a new Earth, but one which is characterized by the never-ending worship of God, where the whole world becomes a temple.
The right worship of God, in which in this Eucharist we begin to participate, is what Jesus offers. To be in heaven means to join in his self-offering, so that Jesus’ action becomes our action. That’s not something that you can do by accumulating good behavior points.
We are joined to Jesus’ saving actions—his self-sacrificing passion, death, and resurrection—through the sacraments, but being united to him means that our behavior must also correspond to his. And that’s why it’s not enough to say that we ate and drank with Jesus or to confess with our lips alone that he is our lord and savior if we continue to do evil. If we are baptized without living out our baptismal obligations, if we receive communion without living in union with Christian teachings, if we recognize Christ without seeing him in our neighbor, then, absent repentance and conversion, we’re headed to the Bad Place just as much as if we had never recognized Jesus at all. The gate is open to all, as both the Gospel and today’s beautiful passage from Isaiah make clear, but it is narrow.
The Lord’s words of warning are certainly sobering, but they are, nonetheless, hopeful. After all, if there were no hope, warning us wouldn’t do any good. As the letter to the Hebrews puts it, “Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines.” Settling for a “heaven” which is less than participating in the love of God, less than knowing the Father through his Son, might sound inclusive, but it would be the ultimate act of despair. God helps us with his grace because he wants to give us so much—not a Good Place, but himself. But here’s the thing: because he is offering us his life, offering us participation in his divine action, the gift cannot be forced on us without our cooperation. We must at least want what he is offering.
Because no matter how many treats and goodies a place contains, no matter what entertainment it provides, no matter how many humanitarian deeds you performed to get there, if it doesn’t have God, well then, it’s not actually such a good place. In fact, despite its secular take on heaven, the TV show “The Good Place” actually gets that part right, if inadvertently. Heaven is not the sort of place you can end up in accidentally. And Eleanor Shellstrop, with all she has to do to hide her true identity and the fear she lives in that she’ll be discovered, lives a tormented existence. Ted Danson, it turns out, is not actually an angel. And the Good Place is not really so good after all: instead, it’s exactly what she deserves.
So don’t try to sneak into the Good Place. Take the path of Jesus Christ. Enter through the narrow gate.
Readings: Is 66:18-21, Heb 12:5-7, 11-13, Lk 13:22-30
August 24, 2025
St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church
Rapid City, South Dakota
Tony Lusvardi, S.J. 