Three fellows found themselves at heaven’s gate where St. Peter posed a question: “If you could go back, what would you change?” The first said, “If I could go back, I’d change my ways to be a more attentive family man.” The second said, “I’d change my giving habits to be more charitable to the poor.” Without hesitation the third said, “If I could go back, I’d change my doctor.”
Details of salvation and heaven have always intrigued us. This curiosity is found in the question posed to Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus does not give a direct reply but sees an opportunity to impart a two-fold lesson.
The first is to correct the Jewish mindset that only the Chosen People would be saved. On the day of judgment, it will not be enough to have belonged to the Chosen People. It will be useless to say, “We ate and drank in your company, and you taught in our streets.” Salvation is universal. God’s infinite love does not know racial, political barriers or social or religious status. A priest once wrote a congratulatory poem to a newly invested Monsignor. It was a gracious poem, but it began with the realistic words, “I doubt that in heaven, Monsignors do rate.” Heaven brings surprises: “Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Bishop Sheen said that there will be three surprises in heaven: The first is that we will find people who we would not have expected to be there. The second is that we will not find those we expected to be there. The third surprise is finding ourselves there!
The second part of the Lord’s lesson is that we need not bother ourselves trying to assess who is in and who is out, but that we should “strive to enter through the narrow gate.” Not an easy venture. In fact, in the original Greek, the word for strive is actually to “agonize” which implies that an effort or struggle is involved.
In this effort we have to avoid two extremes that are sinful. The first is presumption. This is the sin of taking God’s mercy for granted, the mentality that God is so good heaven is guaranteed for all so why bother working hard for something that is “already in the bag?”
This view leads to several spiritual perils: prayer diminishes, the commandments become suggestions, consciences become dull to sin. It is the thinking that “Well, I know this is a sin, but I’ll just go to confession on Saturday.” We can begin to believe that there is no need to change or repent; confession can be put off or even abandoned. Holy Communion can become a routine without discernment. This is not the narrow gate but the wide gate where anything and everything is acceptable because we have determined that God is so merciful there is no need to worry—we can live as we wish. Presumption confuses God’s unconditional love with unconditional approval. God does care about the way we live, and his love and mercy does not annul his justice. If we don’t strive here on earth, we shall have to do it in Purgatory. We should want to shorten that time as much as possible!
The other extreme is despair, a sense of hopelessness that considers every sin so serious that we are blinded to the mercy and love of God. Sins are just too serious to be forgiven. As a result, we fear approaching the sacraments. Confession becomes a torture rather than an experience of peace. Years ago, I gave such a person a simple penance and he refused to do it, he wanted something very severe. To his annoyance, I held him to the simple penance. Despair makes the gate so narrow that it becomes impassable.
While the gate IS narrow, it is not blocked. In our striving, we should not presume nor despair but pour out all our energies into the effort. Fr. Leo Trese says: “If we have the least understanding of heaven, we must see that it is worth living for, working for, and suffering for. We must see that the only certain path to heaven lies over the sometimes rugged but never impassable road to a good life. Surely, we will agree that only a fool would gamble with such a heritage, even for a moment”
