Wednesday in the 30th Week Of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2021

Luke 13:22-30

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  Probably many in the crowd wanted to ask the Lord this vital question but lacked the courage to do so.  And a question of this type does require courage because the answer tells us something about our own chances of being saved.  

We should think about what the person is really asking.  Already at the time of the Lord’s Birth on earth the Jews had developed the belief in a final judgment, with those judged as righteous rewarded with heaven and the wicked punished in hell.  We see this in some of the apocryphal books, such as the Books of Enoch.  This belief came about at the same time as that in the resurrection of the dead, which the Pharisees taught and the Sadducees rejected as not being found in the Law.  Much remained unknown about this judgment, and the question remained open about whether many or only a few people would be saved — that is, saved from hell.  The person in the crowd who called out this question to Jesus believed that Jesus could answer it, whereas the Pharisees could not.  To this person the Lord had demonstrated great wisdom and power so that he would know, if it could be known.  

The Lord’s reply, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough”, may not seem satisfying, but let us look at what he is saying.  By wording his answer in this way, the Lord avoids making it sound as though God had decided that only a few people could be saved and that he would send the majority of people into hell.  Instead, the Lord puts the answer in terms of whether a person was willing to “strive to enter” heaven.  That is, those who strive to do so would enter, but those who did not would be lost.  The “entrance” to heaven may be narrow, but there is an entrance which people may enter.  But they must strive (the Greek verb also means “to contend” to enter through it.  How do we “strive” to enter?  The Lord answers this in Matthew 19, 16-30 when the rich young man asked him what he needed to do to be saved.  The Lord told him to keep the commandments and to follow him, even to the point of giving up his property.  We can see in the Lord’s response to the rich young man a clue as to the meaning of the “narrow” way and how many will not be able to find it or enter it.  Concern for the things of this world, such as position in society or wealth make us too weak to enter the narrow gate.  Those inflated with pride also cannot pass through as the gate is too narrow for them.  Only those who are themselves “narrow” through fasting, alms-giving, and time spent in prayer will be able to pass through, widening the way just enough for themselves with the crosses they carry.

The Lord then speaks of those who will cry out at the judgment, “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.”  They saw the Lord, heard him preach, and did not repent and do penance.  Many living today will cry out in this way, for they saw the Lord in his faithful and in his saints, and heard his words through them and through the Scriptures, and yet went away unmoved or unwilling to move.  They will hear these fearful words: “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!”  The Lord describes their suffering in the world to come: “And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  They will wail in their despair and grind their teeth in their agony.  “And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God.”  The Lord speaks here of the Gentiles who will be saved: those who did not see him and yet believed (cf. John 20, 29).  

“Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  Not all who are “last” will be “first”, but to be “last” is itself not a sign of condemnation.  The Lord refers here to the Jews and the Gentiles.  He also means the rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved, and the first and last in society.  The condition of a person does not matter; only whether that person strives with all his heart, strength, spirit, and soul to enter the narrow gate to Paradise.