Man tends to go by the broad path, even if he possesses few goods, and by the comfortable way of life. He also prefers a wide gate, which does not lead to Heaven: he often rushes without measure upon things, without rule or temperance.
The path that the Lord points out to us is joyful, but it is at the same time a path of the cross and of sacrifice, of temperance and of mortification. If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me. If the grain of wheat does not fall into the earth and die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Temperance is necessary for us in this life in order to be able to enter the next. We Christians are asked to be detached from the goods we have and use, to avoid excessive solicitude, to dispense with the superfluous and, in what is necessary, to put mortification, which guarantees rectitude of intention. We cannot be like those men who "seem to be guided by economy, in such a way that almost all their personal and social life is tinged with a certain materialistic spirit ". They make material means the end of their lives; they think that their happiness is in them and are filled with anxiety to acquire them, easily forgetting that their life is a way to God. Just that: a way to God. Be vigilant, the Lord warns us, lest your hearts be dulled by drunkenness, drunkenness and the cares of life9. Keep your loins girded and your lamps burning, and be like men waiting for their master returning from the marriage feast.
In the wide path of comfort, ease and lack of mortification, the graces that God gives us remain withered and without fruit. It happens as with the seed fallen among thorns: it is choked by worries, riches and pleasures and does not bear fruit. Sobriety, on the other hand, makes it easier to deal with God, for "when the body is heavy and full of maintenance, the spirit is ill-equipped to fly on high.
Are we on the right path, the path of sacrifice and penance, the path of joy and dedication to others? Are we fighting resolutely, with deeds, against the desires for comfort that continually beset us?