Our Gospel today presents a version of that. People were beginning to be convinced that Jesus was close to God, even somehow God himself. He knew things and could do things like no one they had ever heard of. And so they begin to ask him things that no ordinary man could answer. Thus the question that the anonymous person asks Jesus – “Will only a few people be saved?”
It seems like a good question. It’s a question about heaven, and it cuts right to the heart of the matter – how many are going to make it? A number of years ago I read a book by Bishop Robert Barron, the popular Catholic author and speaker who established the Word on Fire ministry. He made an interesting observation about this passage. This question and ones related to it – will I make it to heaven? – are ones that tended to dominate the faith of previous generations of Catholics. Think of your parents’ or grandparents’ generation. They knew the different kinds of sins and were scrupulous about avoiding the serious ones. They heard a lot about God’s judgment and the eternal consequences of our actions. The whole focus of religion for many was about the fear of avoiding hell, and this led to a strictness and, for some, even a paranoia in the way they lived their faith.
As Bishop Barron notes, things have changed in the last 50 years or so. Many Catholics don’t think so much about whether they will make it to heaven – it’s assumed that we all will. Why is this? For one, we focus much more now on God as a merciful God, “God as Love” and the promises he has made to us in Jesus. Not that these things are wrong – they are what we should focus on. But whereas previous generations of Catholics were at times paranoid about whether they would make it to heaven, we have sometimes become too presumptuous that we will. If we assume that eternal life is essentially a given, that virtually everyone makes it to heaven at the end, then why should we bother with spiritual growth? Why not turn our attentions and energies to things like getting a good education, getting ahead in a career, making more money, etc.?
Neither attitude is ideal, neither the strict fearfulness of past generations nor the lax presumptuousness common today. But I think Bishop Barron is right that perhaps the latter attitude is far more dangerous. We believe in God’s mercy, but we also make a dangerous mistake if we fall into the trap of thinking how we live now doesn’t make too much of a difference, that nearly all of us are going to make it to eternal life. As we hear in the Gospel today, that idea just doesn’t fit with what Jesus says. Note that Jesus doesn’t give an answer to “how many?” – he doesn’t give a number or a percentage. Rather he turns his attention to the person asking the question. In a way, this is the most compassionate answer he could give. He doesn’t say, “Only a few” or “Not many.” That would leave many to lose hope and just stop trying. He also doesn’t say what would please the secular mindset that so often creeps into our consciousness – “Oh, don’t worry, you’re safe” or “Nearly everyone is going to get there, including yourself, so do what you like.” Rather, Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”
Cornelis de Bie, The Narrow Gate to Heaven and the Wide Gate to Hell (c. 1660)
Why is it that the gate is narrow, that the road is hard? The reason is not that God is overly harsh but because they are modeled on Jesus himself, who is the antithesis of the easy, broad way. As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews says, if we wish to have eternal life with Jesus, then we must expect that we will be suffer as he suffered, that we will be encounter difficulty and even rejection on the part of the world because of him. The way to salvation is the way of the Cross, because only the Cross leads to eternal life. “Many,” as Jesus says, will attempt this narrow way but will not be strong enough. To be strong enough, we have to turn our attention each and every day to what our relationship with him is like now. We don’t want to become paranoid or fearful of not making it to heaven, like some in past generations were. But we also don’t want to presume anything either – as Jesus says, many who thought that they knew him, who ate and drank with him, who heard his teaching, will be told, “I don’t know you.” Jesus recognizes his own – not those who seemed to be his disciples, who appeared to live good lives, but those who truly did so, who really strove continuously to become Christ-like in this life.
God desires the salvation of all; as the first reading from Isaiah tells us, many will come from the north and the south and the east and the west to enjoy the banquet of God’s kingdom. But eternal life is not like a football game or an exclusive club – you don’t get in just because you have the right ticket. Instead, it’s much more like being an Olympian, allowing ourselves to be shaped and molded through trial and effort and hard work to become another Christ in the world.
Friends, we all have that one question that we want to ask some day of God. But let’s not forget that to get to heaven, we will need to ask – and answer – some questions too. Instead of “How many will be saved?”, the right questions are questions we must ask of ourselves: “Do I know Jesus? Does he know me? How does my life reflect my faith, and how can I be more like him?” It’s those questions, and those answers, that lead us to true relationship, that give us the necessary strength to become Christ-like in the here and now, that pave the way to the heavenly banquet. The gate to heaven may be narrow, but that’s because it’s precisely the size and shape of Jesus himself; to enter it, we have to become like him. Let us then not be worried or presumptuous, but instead focus on the Lord – striving to know him, to be known by him, and to be like him in every way.
No comments:
Post a Comment