To go to heaven we must obey the commands of God; first, the commandments taught by God the Father in the Old Testament. Secondly, the commandments taught by God the Son in the New Testament. And thirdly, the commandments taught by the Holy Spirit after Pentecost.
To begin becoming Catholics we must obey the commandments of the Old Testament and, at least, the commandments at the beginning of the New Testament. Salvation is possible with this minimum requirement. But it is impossible to know and obey the commandment of the New Testament without the grace of God. So the apostles objected to Christ; 'with these first difficult commandments of the New Testament, who will be saved?
And Christ affirmed; 'yes, with man it is impossible. But with God, everything is possible. Man, by himself cannot attain salvation. But with the grace of God, it is possible and even easy. So the effort must be on how to get that grace from God. This is a spiritual and supernatural act that is beyond the capabilities of man. Not even the Pope can get this on his own. He, too, must follow God's rules.
2. 'Lord, are they few in number who are to be saved?' Yes!!!
Christ presents two gates; a wide road that leads to a wide door. And a narrow road that leads to a narrow door. And He said; The wide road that leads to the wide door leads to hell. The narrow road that leads to the narrow door leads to heaven.
Then He adds; 'Try to come in through the narrow door. Many will try to enter and be unable.' What? Christ said that the way to heaven is through the narrow road that leads to the narrow door and yet many who will take this door will be unable to enter. Yes, that is what He said.
3. The wide gate the narrow gate.
The wide gate is the way to hell. It is a life of errors and sins. The wide road is disobedience to the commands of God. It is doing one's own will.
The narrow gate is the way to heaven. It is a life of righteousness and virtue. A way of life in obedience to the commands of God. It is doing God's Will as found in the Gospels and interpreted by the Tradition or the Fathers of the Church.
4. St. Thomas of Aquinas describes the two gates.
The wide road that leads to the wide gate is a.) love for safety, b.) love of pleasures, c.) life of ease and delight, d.) life of wanton mirth, e.) life of dancing and sound of music, f.) and giving in to one's lust.
The narrow road that leads to the narrow gate is a.) a rough life full of spiritual dangers, b.) constant thought of eternity, c.) a life of subjection to God's Will, d.) a life of sobriety in food, drink and everything else, e.) a life with tears of repentance, f.) constant moments of prayer, g.) a life of purity.
5. Christ increased His teachings all around the surrounding towns, to explain the narrow gate. So no one commits any mistake. But inspite of this, Christ said, ' Few will be able to enter the narrow gate. Why?
a.) because unlike Christ, who preached vehemently describing this narrow road that leads to the narrow gate, few preachers, if none at all, preaches this, because it is unacceptable both to the listeners and the preachers themselves since both love the wide, spacious road.
No one would like to be a child again. No one would like to go home, sell all their things, give it to the poor and follow Christ. No one would like to be a camel and give up the burden of a worldly life and crawl on his knees to pass through the eye of a needle. No one wants a narrow and bumpy road, and narrow bridge where it is easy to fall with a little turn to the right or to the left.
Preachers do not preach the necessity to chose this narrow road that leads to a narrow gate. They cannot describe this way of life and how to put it into practice because they do not not know tradition. So nobody takes this road because they cannot find it.
b.) Seeing the hardships of a narrow, bumpy road; and seeing the wide spacious road beside, they easily transfer to the wide road that leads to the wide gate and hell.
6. Pope John Paul II and "Veritatis splendor. "
Pope John Paul II saw that all Catholics were walking on the wide road that led to the wide gate; and hardly anyone was walking in the narrow road that led to the narrow gate. So he wrote one of the best encyclicals of our modern times, 'Veritatis Splendor.' This was a description of the 'Young rich man' who went to Christ and asked Him, 'what must I do to have everlasting life?'
This is the question every soul is asking. But who like the young rich man does not like the answer. Priests and bishops, also, do not like the answer. And so no one is giving the right answer and no layman knows the answer. So hardly anyone is walking on the narrow road.
Pope John Paul addressed the encyclical only to bishops, which is strange for an encyclical that is always addressed to the whole Church. Why? Because no ordinary person, even theologians would not understand the answer.
Pope John Paul laid down the first step to be taken to walk on the narrow road; 'Go home, sell all your things, give it to the poor and come follow Me.' Christ said this to the apostles, to the Publican, to Ananias and Saphira, to everybody who wished to follow Him. That is what Christ said as answer to the question; 'what must I do to inherit everlasting life.'
But this is not done literally. It must be done mystically. And the interpretation is not found in Scriptures but in the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas of Aquinas. Pope John Paul II wrote it down in 82 pages. Is it any wonder, few will be able to enter the narrow gate? Spiritually, using mind and heart, it will be nearly impossible for anyone to enter heaven. 'Veritatis Splendor' was written 16 years ago and nobody had preached it up to this very moment. Not Pope Francis, nor Baldiseri, nor Marx, nor Cupich, nor Tagle. Nobody seems to know this first step towards the narrow gate that leads to heaven. So nobody is entering the Catholic Church, and as Christ said, it seems nobody is able to enter heaven. For the two reasons given above.
