Strive for the Narrow Gate

Perhaps the most pressing question for Christians is: Will I be saved? It is natural and even sane to ask this. Eternal matters are of ultimate importance, and so someone once asked Jesus the very same thing. Yet Jesus did not answer directly. Instead, He told them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus explains that the gate is narrow and many will not be strong enough to enter. In Matthew, He adds that the road to destruction is broad and easy, but the road to life is narrow and hard.

Why is this? Because the way of life requires something beyond human strength. It requires love; true love. Not love as sentiment, but love that gives of itself completely for the sake of the other. This is the love God has for us: the love that created us out of nothing, not because He needed us, but because He desired our good. It is the love He showed on the Cross, where He gained nothing for Himself and gave everything to us.

And yet, we cannot love this way on our own. We need Christ. We need Him to intercede, to offer Himself for us, to restore us to sonship and merit grace on our behalf. Grace builds on our nature and enables us to enter into the bonds of love we could never achieve by ourselves.

But love is not easy. It is extraordinarily difficult. It comes at great cost: a cost we could not afford. Christ paid that cost, and yet He still calls us to participate. To love means to surrender my own wants and desires for the sake of others. It hurts. It costs me something. But it is the only path that leads to life.

When we stand at the door and knock, Christ will recognize us only by the measure of love in our hearts. And love requires grace. It requires sacrifice. That is why we must be disciplined now. When we choose inordinate self-love, we harm others and we also harm ourselves. Sin, at its heart, is nothing more than saying, “I don’t care what you want. I only care what I want.” Like Adam and Eve, we soon discover that such a path leads not to joy but to death.

And yet, even here God shows mercy. Like a good parent, He lets us feel the consequences of sin. Not to destroy us, but to teach us that our way is madness. The pain of sin, when embraced with humility, can become the very thing that steers us back to Him. Even suffering can become a teacher that leads us once again to the narrow road and the narrow gate.

We should long to be counted among that “happy few.” God’s plan has always been to gather all nations to Himself. Israel was chosen not for its own merit, but to be the means by which God would draw all people into His covenant. Christ came not only for the chosen people, but to make all people His chosen. This is why the mission of the Church extends to the ends of the earth.

All are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb, but not all accept the invitation. All are offered grace, but not all cooperate with it. Our task is to cooperate with grace, not only for our salvation but for the sake of our neighbor. For God uses us as instruments of His love. He does not force us, but He asks us to serve Him by leading others toward the narrow way.

This is what it means to serve God: to walk the narrow path, to enter through the narrow gate, and to bring with us as many of our brothers and sisters as will come.

In the end, the narrow gate is not something we squeeze through by sheer willpower. Grace is God giving us the strength to walk through it. What is humanly impossible becomes possible in Christ. He does not simply point to the gate and leave us; He walks with us, carries us when we stumble, and draws us into His own love. That is why the narrow way, though costly, is also filled with joy. It is the road that leads to life