“Entering Through the Narrow Gate“ – 08.21.22 (21st Sunday OT – C)

“Entering Through the Narrow Gate“

By: Fr. David Schmidt

Regina Coeli Parish - St. John Neumann Church - Franklin Park, PA

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082122.cfm

I think it’s fair to say that the Gospel passage that we heard today is a startling one. First, when asked about if only a few people will be saved, Jesus says that the gate is narrow that leads to salvation, and He continues saying “for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” Then Jesus speaks of how at some point the Master will rise and lock the door and people will be knocking and begging Him to open the door, but the Master will say that He doesn’t know where they are from, and say to them, “depart from me, all you evildoers.” Then, the Gospel says, “there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

One of the things that we need to learn from this Gospel passage is that hell is real, and there’s a real chance that we could end up there if we don’t follow Christ in the way that He is calling us to follow Him.

This is why the 2nd reading is so important because it shows us how God strengthens us so that we have the strength and grace to enter through the narrow gate and into eternal life. How does God give us the strength to endure and pass through the narrow gate? He does it through disciplining us through the various trials, sufferings, and hardships He has us endure throughout our lives.

The reason why this gate is narrow is not because God is trying to make it hard on us or that He only wants a few people in heaven. It’s narrow because so few people are willing to endure, and do what’s necessary to enter God’s kingdom through the narrow gate. We live in a world that is obsessed with making our lives as comfortable as possible. We reject and mock any notion of suffering and sacrifice. Suffering and sacrifice seems absurd when we have the technology now to create for ourselves lives of maximum comfort. We even become comfortable in our sin. 

Some of you may have seen the movie “God’s Not Dead” and in it there’s this scene where the son who is living a worldly life reluctantly goes and visits his mom with dementia. As he is sitting with her, he is mocking her saying, that she was a person of prayer, and he wasn’t, yet, she is the one with dementia, and he is living a perfect life. Then surprisingly, the mom responds in this mesmerizing way saying, “Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble, because He doesn’t want them turning to God. Your sin is like a jail cell, except it’s so nice and comfy, and there doesn’t seem to be any need to leave. The door is wide open. Until one day, time runs out, the cell door slams shut, and suddenly it’s too late.”[i]

The devil wants to make our life as comfortable as possible, so we can go about our life thinking that we’re in good shape and that we don’t really need God because we are living comfortable lives, and have everything that we need. Then as the quote says, the door slams shut on our lives and suddenly it’s too late. The devil lured us to sleep, and now we suffer for it for all eternity. In the comfort of our sin we think we are free, but we are so deceived by the comforts of our sin that we fail to realize that we are in a jail cell. 

Pope Benedict XVI says, “The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” Leading a life of comfort leads to a life of mediocrity. However, God made us for greatness.

God could let us continue on the path that we are on, and let us live lives of comfort in our sin, but He loves us too much to let us do that. He loves us so much that He is willing to allow His children to suffer and experience the pains, sufferings, and hardships of this life as a discipline, so that we may have the strength to enter through the narrow gate into heaven. We are all sinners and we all need purified. This purification and discipline of God is painful and it hurts.

It is not easy being Christian. God knows it’s not easy. It’s not easy having to pick up our cross each day, and walk the path to Calvary with Christ. It’s not easy following the laws of the Church, and finding time to pray each day. It’s not easy overcoming our vices of sin, and breaking from our sinful inclinations. It’s much easier to give into every sinful impulse and desire that we have. It’s much easier and less painful to not have to go through the fires of purification. The greatness that God calls us too in the faith isn’t easy. To pass through this narrow gate is very difficult. 

These principles of needing to go through trials and sufferings to attain the reward apply to every area of our lives, not just the ultimate pursuit of our salvation. Anything worth having in this life is difficult to attain, and will include trials and hardships of some sort. It takes many grueling practice sessions for an athlete or musician to become great at their craft. Some will have to overcome devastating injuries and disappointments on the journey. However, those who have taken this path say the reward in the end makes it worth everything they had to go through, and it helped them enjoy the reward and appreciate it more. 

In Romans 8 it says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” Our Lord knows the great pain of our sufferings and trials that we have had to endure in this life. He gives us hope and reassurance that what He has in store for us in heaven is so great, that it makes even the worse of our sufferings seem like nothing in comparison. This gives us great hope in our suffering and pain knowing that one day our suffering will come to end, and we will receive an eternal reward.

Now the question we need to ask is, ‘how has the devil become so effective in luring so many people away from the path that leads through the narrow gate into eternal life, and instead, luring them onto the path of comfort and sin that leads through the wide-open gates into the pits of hell?

He has become so effective, because he has done a good job in causing us to become short-sighted. When looking at the two paths that we can follow in our lives, either the path of comfort in our sin, or the path of the Cross, it’s much easier to choose the path of comfort and sin.

A good image to use the image of a path with flowers and roses all up and down the sides, and it looks all comfortable and enjoyable, but then at the end of the path there is this giant pit. This is contrasted with a path filled with thorns and overgrowth, but at the end of this path is a beautiful open field. 

The devil wants us to be short-sighted and see only the immediate path ahead of us, and not to look at the end. This is why the path containing the comforts of the world is so appealing because in comparison to the path filled with thorns there is much less pain and suffering. Those who choose the path of thorns, know they will be cut up on their journey, but they know that at the end of this path will be this beautiful open field, and it will make all the pain and suffering to get there worth it. Those who choose the path of comfort blind themselves to the fact that at the end of this path is a fiery pit that they will fall into if they don’t turn from this path. 

The devil doesn’t want us to see that beyond the sufferings of the Cross is eternal life. When we follow the Christian path, the path that Christ took on the Cross, we experience suffering on the front end, but on the back end is Paradise. The world offers comfort upfront, but this comfort is deceiving, because it quickly fades away and leads to damnation and being cast into the darkness, where there is wailing and grinding of teeth.

Now to clarify, the world in itself is not bad or evil. The things of this world become bad and evil, when we turn the things of this world into idols and we go to them for our happiness instead of God. Thus turning away from God, and rejecting Him.

Again, our Heavenly Father knows the path of the Cross isn’t easy. He knows that the pains and sufferings and hardships of this life hurt badly. However, we must always know that in a way that is beyond our understanding, one of the ways that God shows His love to us, is by disciplining us. As the Scriptures says, “for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;” He disciplines us through the various trials and sufferings He allows us to endure, because He knows the importance of what is at stake…our eternal salvation. He wants us to have the strength to enter through the narrow gate, so that we may be with Him in Paradise forever. A Paradise where there is no more suffering or pain but only eternal joy, ecstasy, and bliss. This is what we are made for and this is what God is preparing us for. By calling us to follow the path of the Cross, through the narrow gate, and into the joys of eternal life.

[i] Scene from ‘God’s Not Dead’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDxTuYhITK8