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The Narrow Path

Narrow Path

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


“How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” With this chilling line today’s scriptures end.

In the first reading, Abram, who has chosen the narrow road by seeking to be faithful to God in all things, is given a breathtaking promise:

“Look about you, and from where you are,
gaze to the north and south, east and west;
all the land that you see I will give to you
and your descendants forever.
I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth;
if anyone could count the dust of the earth,
your descendants too might be counted.”

Throughout Scripture, we find that the outcome of choices in life are uncomfortably binary. Either we choose the difficult path of God’s will in all things, and reap amazing happiness like that promised to Abram, or we choose the broad path that leads to perdition, and lose all happiness forever.

Why is the path of God’s will difficult? We also read in today’s gospel:

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the Law and the Prophets.”

Sounds sweet and pleasant. The Golden Rule. But living it is very hard. Abram provides us an ideal example in the first reading. Instead of picking the best parcel of land for himself, he gave Lot the first choice–and Lot chose the more fertile parcel. God’s promise to Abram above follows directly upon this choice. Doing God’s will is so simple. And so hard. And, the consequences could not be more definitive and extreme.

We’d like it to be otherwise. Countless very learned theologians have taken great pains to explain away Jesus’ words, effectively stating that He was predicting not outcomes that would happen, but outcomes that could happen. Sure, Jesus says that few find the path to salvation. But that’s just what could happen, if people are really really evil. In reality, just about everyone gets to Heaven.

What does Jesus really say, though? He says that few find the path to salvation–present tense, indicative mood. He is stating what actually does happen. And we do well to take His words at face value, and to strive with all our might to make choices, all day, every day, like those of Abram.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to give you a heart like His, always ready to give others the best and take the inferior for ourselves–which is what it means to do to others what we would have them do to us.

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It’s Either/Or

Two Roads

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


In the 1960s and 1970s, it seemed the Church was replete with theologians excited to invent–convinced, it appeared, that their hour was the hour of innovation. The thirst for innovation seemed in some cases to surpass the thirst for truth.

One of the brand new theological trends of that time, which unfortunately remains prevalent to this very day among even good and noble souls, is the notion that maybe, just maybe–read: probably, likely–all or at least most people in the end are saved.

This supposition flies in the face of the prior one-thousand-nine-hundred-something years of tradition in the Church and the unanimous teaching of the saints. It also flies in the face of the Gospel itself, where Jesus unequivocally states that those who walk the broad road that leads to damnation are many (cf. Mt. 7:13).

Such theology rejects the message of the first reading wholesale, or relegates it completely to Old Testament times. Yet, this first reading is a very tame precursor to the terrible separation of the sheep from the goats at Final Judgement, about which Jesus explicitly speaks (Mt. 25: 31-46).

And in today’s Gospel, He talks about treating those who commit offenses and fail to listen to the Church as outcasts, indicating further that whatever the Church binds or looses on earth is likewise bound or loosed in Heaven.

That God allows souls to be condemned is of course as mysterious as it is certain–but a sort of understanding can be reached if we accept that God values human freedom more than He does human salvation. He would rather allow persons to walk to their own perdition than remove from them their freedom by forcing salvation on them when they have rejected it.

But who in his right mind would reject God’s mercy and eternal life, in the end, if given the choice?

This too, while mysterious, can be understood in a way when we realize that, by and large, people don’t reject God’s mercy and love–they reject the prospect of their own transformation. In the end, only saints stand in the presence of God. Standing before Him without full alignment to Him would in fact be a fate more painful than Hell. Reaching sainthood, whether on earth or in purgatory, is a deeply painful process of detachment, and while the end result is exaltation, the process feels like one is being turned inside out.

And many, many reject the prospect of this process–quietly but explicitly, in the recesses of their hearts–and lose God as the inevitable result. There is no middle ground.

But hearken to the second-to-last statement in today’s Gospel! “If two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”

Per the message of St. Faustina, the Church must come together as never before and pray and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners. And in line with today’s Gospel, Our Lord assured this saint that prayer for the conversion of sinners is always answered.

Heavenly Father, by the infinite power of the sacrifice of your Son, penetrate deeply into the hearts of sinners, and convert them to yourself! I give you my freedom as a small token; leverage it as you did the self-gift of the Blessed Virgin Mary to pry open the hardened hearts of sinners and show them compellingly what they are missing! Lead them to Yourself!

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Him to what lengths He would go–in fact, went–to open the door for sinners to walk through to their salvation. Contemplate the degree of His sacrifice for the eternal fulfillment of human persons. And ask Him what role He would like you to play to help them put one foot in front of the other and walk through that door.

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