“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus doesn’t give a direct answer to this question in today’s Gospel but rather He gives us clues as to the makeup of the Kingdom of Heaven and of His desires for us to be with Him for all eternity.
I am reminded of the often repeated “homily joke : (which I’ve used a number of times before) of St. Peter greeting a new arrival at heaven’s gate and taking him on a tour. After passing by streets paved in gold, silver and platinum and filled with people from all faiths celebrating, St. Peter and he walk past a walled-off area where St. Peter tells the man to be very quiet. The new resident asks “why must I be quiet, everyone’s partying?” Peter replies “this is where the Catholics are and they think they are the only ones up here.” The humor here is meant to illustrate that sometimes we might believe that when it comes to getting into heaven, we Catholics might think “we’ve got it made.” When it comes to painting a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus uses three images in today’s gospel: (1) the narrow gate, (2) the locked door, and (3) the great banquet. Through these three images, we can gleam an understanding of heaven: First, “Salvation is not first come, first serve.” And no matter how much we do on earth or how wonderfully spiritually prepared we are, someone at the “end of the line” might get in ahead of us (remember we do believe in Purgatory). Secondly, getting into heaven is not a matter of “privilege…or of who you know.” Rather, when we might be shocked to see who is there—and how many people are there—even the people we never thought we’d see in the Kingdom. And finally, Jesus tells us that people from all nations will be joining in at the great banquet table in heaven, “from all the ends of the earth.”
So what might be a “take-away” for this weekend’s scriptural message for us to consider? That each one of us needs to be open to our Father’s unique openness and hospitality as members within our own Christian community and then to generously embrace and share His love with others in our time and place.” In doing this, we need to: