As they were on their way to Jerusalem, one asked him, Lord, are there few that are saved? Jesus did not answer him directly, but said to him: Strive to enter by the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. And in the Gospel of today's Mass, St. Matthew has left us this exclamation of the Lord: How narrow is the gate, and how narrow is the path that leads to life, and how few there are that go through it!
Life is like a road that ends in God, a short road. Above all, it is important that, when we arrive, the door opens and we can enter: "We are pilgrims on our way to the consummation of human history. The Lord says: I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according to his works..." (Rev 22:12-13). (Rev 22:12-13)".
Two paths, two attitudes in life. To seek what is most comfortable and pleasurable, to give away the body and flee from sacrifice and penance; or, to seek the will of God even if it costs, to keep the senses guarded and the body subject. To live as pilgrims who carry just enough and spend little time on things because they are passing through, or to remain anchored in comfort, pleasure or temporal goods used as ends and not simply as means.
One path leads to Heaven; the other to perdition, and there are many who walk along it. We must often ask ourselves where we are walking and where we are going. Are we going straight to Heaven, even if there is no lack of defeats and weaknesses? Is it the narrow way we are walking? Do we habitually live temperance and mortification, small sacrifices, small but real? Where are we going? What is really the end of our actions?
"If we look at things, not as a pure theory, but with reference to life, perhaps it will be possible to understand it better. If a university student wants to be a doctor, he does not enroll in Romance Philology.... In reality, if a student enrolls in Romance Philology, he is demonstrating that what he really wants is to be a philologist, not a doctor, in spite of what is said (...). And this is so because when you want something you have to choose the right means (...). If one wants to go to his own home and deliberately chooses the road that leads to the house of his enemy, what he is undoubtedly wanting is to go where, he says, he does not want to go "4. And if he gives the reason that he has chosen that particular road because it is more comfortable, then what really matters to him is the road, not the end to which it leads him.
Many live in pursuit of immediate ends, without orienting their lives to the ultimate end, God, who must determine everything. But let us not forget that, in order to achieve this, "each day a little more - just as when carving a stone or a piece of wood - we have to smooth out the rough edges, remove defects from our personal life, with a spirit of penance, with small mortifications (...)".