We offer a vote of mass in honor of St. Joseph today being Wednesday, a day traditionally associated with devotion to St. Joseph, and St. Joseph we know, of course, has many titles in his litany. Amongst those titles are one of my favorite is the patron of a happy death and St. Joseph, of course, had the happiness of passing from this world with Jesus our Savior his foster son and Mary the Queen of Heaven his spouse at his side. And so we asked St. Joseph to help us each day because we know that each day we grow closer to that day that we will ultimately leave this world and that we asked St. Joseph to help us to prepare for that day, that we may die we may die a happy death prepared to go before the judgment seat of God.
And this is what Our Lord is trying to stress with us today's gospel there are really two ways we can look at this gospel first of course Our Lord is reflecting upon those who will not accept him as Lord and Savior and the people coming from the east and the west to sit at the table of course are the the God's invitation to the Gentiles those who are not Jewish to come to accept his son as Savior of the world and those those who will come from the east and west a north and south a prophet reclining at table where the first of course would what and with the first of course we would have thought would have been the Jewish people who were called first by God to accept his way and just referring to the again the hardness of heart that was present and not accepting Jesus as there as the Messiah the Lord and Savior. 
But also the gospel applies the gospel is always present as well and it applies also throughout the history of the church to all those who come to follow Christ and what Our Lord wants us to be aware of is the seriousness that we should take in preparing ourselves to stand before the judgment seat of God that throughout history and even in our modern times people tend to be concerned or to be attentive to things of various things in their life but often which is most neglected is the care of the soul, the care of the soul should be seen as our priority and that we wanted to make our soul always pleasing to God and to be ready to stand before God that we want to be ready whenever God may call us to stand before him and that we don't want to neglect this. And so sadly so many times people's priorities this is not amongst people's priorities where other things take priority in their life and they mean and they may leave this world not prepared. And so Our Lord just wants to remind us to be prepared.
But I can't help but think as well, but Our Lord says something very in this gospel, which I think is very important to reflect upon he says strive to enter through the narrow gate for many I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough and I can't help but think that maybe Our Lord is referring here the gate being the title of Our Lady the gate of heaven that she is the narrow gate the gate where all who enter through her will enter heaven that we are weak on our own we are weak by ourselves, but with Mary's help with her maternal help and grace we will be assisted by her to be able to reach heaven that she is the mother of grace she's called the gate of heaven. And I can't help but think this is a reference to her reference for her because, as St. Alphonsus Liguori said, and he's a doctor of the church, he said, no one who is a true child of Mary will be lost. No one who is a child of Mary will go to hell, and he's a doctor of the church, St. Alphonsus Liguori. So I can't help but think that, of course, he refers to this that even the greatest sinner, if they were about to die, turn to Mary; she would save them, so great is her intercession before the throne of God, that God refuses his mother nothing. And so we ask Our Lady to help us to, and so beautifully when we say the Hail Mary, we refer to that, pray for me now and at the hour of our death. May Mary, our mother, help us to truly open our hearts and our souls to her grace to help us to be ever more conformed to her heart and loving and following Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior.
In the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.