Who will be saved?

“Lord, will many be saved?” Jesus responded, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

(Luke 13:23-24)

I was in a foreign restaurant eating alone when I saw a middle-aged couple at a distant table. They ate, talked and laughed with humble elegance, and sometimes he would lean over and whisper in her ear. They were deeply in love, and it was beautiful to behold.

There were other couples dining, but they seemed to be distant from one another. It is true, everyone there was eating, but not everyone was feeding one another with their loving attention and conversation like this couple.

After paying the bill, the man stood up and walked behind her. He then drew her chair back from the table and wheeled her away. It was only then that I saw that she was in a wheel chair.

I said to myself, “I wonder how much they have endured together?” I thought of the vows given in front of God and his Church in the Sacrament of marriage, “I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

I thought of all that my Mom and Dad had been through raising seven children. Many of us regret the childish antics and moments of neglecting duties of faith and family, but never do we regret my parent’s constant faith, hope, love and forgiveness, and their reasonable discipline.

In today’s Gospel Jesus is asked if only a few will be saved. He answers that many will not have the strength of faith, hope and love to endure the trials that lead to a strong, deepening love that follows him and his bride to the heavenly banquet table. As we read in the New Testament: “If you love me, you will keep my command-ments.” (John 14:15), and “Loving God means keeping his commandments.” (1 John 5:3).

Many of those who never repented of their mortal sins nor practiced their faith fully might say that they ate with Jesus at his Eucharistic table and even listened to him with faith. And yet, since they did not love God above all serious sins and did not strive against them by repenting, Jesus will say to them, “I do not know you, nor where you are from. Depart from me you evildoers!” (Luke 13:24-25)

God knows us and where we are from when we share our lives, our struggles with temptations, handing over even our sins and weaknesses to Jesus and his Church. For all this comes from a humble and grateful heart touched by God’s grace and mercy, especially in the Sacrament of Confession.

Many do not have the strength of faith to confess their sins with a whisper in the confessional and thus miss out on the heart-to-heart conversation of God’s forgiveness,

absolution and love through Jesus Christ. Instead of having their sins absolved and its effects eliminated through penance with the help of Holy Mother Church, their mortal sins and their effects will be seen by all on the Last Day. As Jesus says, “There will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Let us remember and rejoice that on the night of Jesus’ Resurrection, the night that he proved beyond a doubt that he is God, Jesus appeared to the Apostles and breathed on them the Holy Spirit saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of sincere men they will be forgiven. If you hold them bound, they will be held bound.” (Cf. John 20:20-23)

Some people come to eat at the Lord’s table and leave immediately after, sometimes because of an emergency, which is acceptable, but often because they choose not to put God first in their life. They may not know how to strengthen their love by quietly thanking God from their humble heart while waiting for the final blessing which completes the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

It is sometimes difficult to be in the presence of the Lord awaiting his purifying love, but as true disciples let us recall what St. Paul writes in today’s second reading: “My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.” Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of right-eousness to those who are trained by it.” (Heb 12:5-11)

It is only through loving discipline that one has the courage to live for God and others. Reasonable discipline and loving correction will prevent a child from becoming spoiled, ungrateful and unwilling to follow even the most basic Commandments of God. Instead, reasonable discipline will help any man, woman and child suffer out of love for Christ and his Bride the Church, as well as for their family and friends. They will learn to love God above all things, in order to love others and themselves appropriately.

Someone had the courage to ask Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” And Jesus replied, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will at-tempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

Only those whom the Lord knows to be humbly imperfect and yet have courageously striven to truly repent and love will be saved; and will be forever fed at the table of God’s eternal happiness, intimacy and wisdom.

Peace in Christ,

Fr. Thomas McCabe