The Narrow Door

3. Enter through the narrow door, for the door to perdition is wide and the path leading to it is broad, and there are many who enter through it. How small is the door to life! How  narrow is the path that leads to it! And how few there are who find it! (Mt. 7:13, 14)

4. Someone asked him this question: “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He responded, “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for I assure you that many will try to enter through it but will not be able to. And once the father of the family has entered and shut the door, and you, being outside, start knocking, by saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ he will answer, ‘I do not know where you have come from.’ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you and you taught us in our public squares,’ and he will respond, ‘I do not know where you have come from; away from me, all you who have practiced iniquity.’”

“Then, there will be weeping and gnashing  of teeth  when  you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, while you yourselves have been thrown out. Many will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, those who will have a place at the feast in the kingdom of God. Hence, those who are last shall be first and those who are first shall be last.” (Lk. 13:23-30)

5. The door to perdition is wide because the evil passions are many, and the pathway to evil is frequented by most. The door to salvation is narrow because those who want to go through it must make a great effort to control themselves in order to overcome their evil tendencies, and few resign themselves to doing so. It is the complement to the maxim: Many are called but few are chosen.

Such is the current state of earth’s humankind, because, since the earth is a world of expiation, evil predominates on it. When it is transformed, the pathway to goodness will be the one most frequented. These words, therefore, should be understood in the relative sense and not in the absolute sense. If this were to be the normal state of humankind, God would have intentionally condemned the vast majority of individuals to  perdition, an unacceptable supposition if one acknowledges  God as entirely just and good.

But  of what evil actions could humankind  make itself guilty to deserve such a sad fate in its present and in its future if it has been completely relegated to the earth and if the soul has not had other existences? Why are there so many obstacles sown along the way? Why such a narrow door that allows only a small number to pass through if the soul’s fate is sealed forever after death? In this way, with only one lifetime, humankind is in constant conflict both with itself and the justice of God. With the prior existence of the soul and the plurality of worlds, the horizon is broadened;  light is shed on the most obscure points of the faith; the present and future are in solidarity with the past. Only then can one understand all the depth, all the truth and all the wisdom of Christ’s maxims.