We have heard someone ask Jesus, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" I think that question is wrong to ask. In effect, he asked Jesus, “How many people will go to Heaven?” He was looking for a number. That is not what you have to be concerned about. He should have asked, “What should I do to get to heaven?” Jesus answered the opposite to the question. Jesus answered, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”
What is it that you have to do to become strong; to struggle through the narrow door? As Christians our narrow door is Jesus himself. Whenever we choose anything contrary to the will of Jesus, we are making our door wider. As we walk through the wider path at the end of our journey, the door will be locked and the Lord will tell us that he doesn’t know us. This will be the most heart breaking thing to hear from the Lord at the end of our life. What do we have to do to be strong; to strive through the narrow path? We as the Disciples of Christ, have to be disciplined by the Lord. We have heard in the second reading, “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 righteousness to those who are trained by it.” Everything we have to endure in our life as a Christian we should take as a means to discipline us.
The Christian life is like the effort of an athlete preparing for a marathon, not like the onlooker eating ice-cream. Jesus’ teaching today is really calling for conversion now because it will be too late when we die. When the master of the house has locked the door, to use the words of Jesus in the Gospel today, if we were not striving, if we were eating ice-cream instead of preparing for the marathon we will find ourselves locked out.
Pope John Paul II speaking at the canonization of Edith Stein in 1998 said, “The modern world boasts of the enticing door which says: everything is permitted. It ignores the narrow gate of discernment and renunciation. I am speaking especially to you, young Christians…Your life is not an endless series of open doors! Listen to your heart! Do not stay on the surface, but go to the heart of things! And when the time is right, have the courage to decide! The Lord is waiting for you to put your freedom in his good hands.”
Jesus is our narrow door. We choose Jesus, the narrow door, because he himself chose the narrow door of Calvary for us. The narrow door included Calvary for Jesus and includes Calvary for each of us also. When we endure our own personal Calvary, it can work for our good just as it did in the case of Jesus. St. Paul teaches us in his letter to the Romans “We know that all things work for the good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” So Calvary or no Calvary we strive to enter through the narrow door, because that is the only door that leads us to life in Jesus Christ.