* In 16 English translations of the Holy Bible, including those used by Catholics, this word is translated as "narrow," from the Latin word "angustam" in the Vulgate, the official Catholic Bible, based on the written colloqual Latin works of St. Jerome." In the King James Version, referenced here, the English word is "strait."

"Christ died for us!" is the fundamental message of Christianity that colors every other message of the Gospel. The "us" in that statement is taken by Catholics to mean all human beings, everywhere, for all time!

A few weeks ago, one of our preachers remarked that The admonition of Jesus to "Strive to enter through the narrow gate," implies that "Not everybody goes to heaven." I was reminded of my 7th grade teacher, whom I shall call Sister Mary Martin, RSM, who had posted at the front of her classroom the expression, "Someday I will be somewhere for all eternity." She estimated that about 4% of the "people in this room" would "end up in hell." This filled my seventh grade psyche with dread that still occasionally interrupts my sleep with nightmares of "going to hell." Privately, we students suspected that one of them would be Sister Martin herself, because she knew so much about hell that we considered it likely that she had been born and raised there!

I think what our preacher meant was that "Probably not everybody goes to heaven," because there are some really BAD people on this planet walking around loose! Mulitply convicted criminals! Wife cheating adulterers! Race-baiting, tax cheating, investor swindling, worker shafting, dictator loving, pathologically lying, attorneys general bribing, philandering narcissistic serial con artist bribe soliciting oath breaking bullies who love money and hate their enemies!

Actually, closer examination of the Gospel story reveals a tactic Jesus often employed to illustrate a point by not answering the question. (Luke 13:23) I have written commentaries about some of the others.

Tribute to Caesar (Matthew 22:17. Mark 12:14, Luke 20:22) (The difference between Caesar and God)

What shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 10:25) (The Good Samaritan), and Luke 10:29. (Who is my neighbor?)

And (Casting the first stone) (John 8:7)

In each case, it appears to me that the answer implies an "IF/THEN" conditional relationship, where an outcome (the "THEN" part) depends on a condition being met (the "IF" part). "IF something belongs to Caesar, THEN give it to him." "IF you know the what the Scripture prescribes for eternal life, THEN tell me." "IF somebody treats you like a neighbor, THEN he meets the Scriptural criterion." "IF somebody is without sin, THEN he is allowed to cast the first stone."

In the context of Luke 13:25, IF the master has locked the door and you come late, THEN you won't be able to get in.

What Jesus did NOT say is that there necessarily are, or will be, any like that. Maybe he thought the people who asked the question didn't really need to know!

Matthew 25:31-46 is often cited as an argument that many people will be thrown into "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," but here again, the conditional situation is implied. "IF you didn't feed me, or IF you didn't give me anything to drink, or IF you didn't take me in, or IF you didn't give me anything to wear, or IF you didn't visit me while sick or in prison, THEN. you will be thrown into "everlasting fire."

There is an additional idea here that I think is often missed. The "everlasting fire" is "prepared for the devil and his angels," not necessarily for people. The point here is that IF you ally yourself with the rebellious angels, THEN you will suffer the same fate. But the punishment was specifically prepared for them, not necessarily for you!

The Church's teaching on purgatory (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] paragraph 1030) contains a similar implication: IF any die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, THEN after death they undergo purification, "so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."

This implication is also present on the teaching about hell (CCC paragraph 1033). IF souls die in a state of mortal sin, THEN they descend into hell and suffer the punishments thereof.

This, of course, appears to contradict the assertion that baptism is "necessary for salvation" (CCC paragraph 1257). The position taken by many non-Catholics, and some Catholics like my St. Ambrose Academy religion teacher, the allegedly reverend Robert "Bucky" Walters, that unbaptized infants go straight to hell! We all know emphatically is NOT the teaching of the Church he represented. We assert that: "As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them." (CCC paragraph 1261) It appears to me that this includes the unborn, who are certainly "children."

Our official position, for those who do not know, is that, "the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery." (CCC paragraph 1260)

Scripture, and the early Church, appear to regard death as an event. Before death you are alive, and after death you are dead. Recent church practice, however, appears to allow for death being a process, before which one is doing things, like breathing, and afterward is putrifying somewhere. There seems to be a period between the two conditions in which an individual is only "partially dead," such as when the heart stops beating, but before cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) gets it going again.

I have a friend who claims that his heart stopped while undergoing surgery, that he watched from above as the staff used an external defibrillator to revive him. He claims that he found himself suddenly back in his body again. Was he dead for a while and then brought back? I don't know; I wasn't there!

Father Michael Kerper, writing for the Diocese of Manchester in New Hampshire claims that "A priest may administer the sacraments "conditionally." This may happen if the person has just expired or if there is any doubt that the person is truly dead. In cases like this, the priest will administer the sacraments with the assumption that the person is still alive. Most priests will do this if the apparent death happened within 20 or 30 minutes" Our preacher is probably more familiar than I with these concerns, since he is, or used to be, in the business of resuscitating supposedly "dead people." He no doubt has a prescribed protocol for administering or withholding the Last Rites of the Church from possibly, but not definitely still living people who are in the process of dying.

Given the situations that Jesus described, the belief that baptism is necessary for salvation but unbaptized infants and others can still be saved, and assuming that death may not be an instantaneous event, I belive that both Scripture and Church practice implicitly hold out the hope that even great sinners can repent before "death" terminates that opportunity forever. I submit the fact that, while the Church recognizes thousands and thousands of canonized saints who have been saved and are "in heaven" now and for all eternity, she does not claim that anybody today is actually "in hell!" Not a single soul, including some truly infamous "Christians."

In suffering and death his [Jesus'] humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men (CCC paragraph 609)

In my study of Islam, I ran across a statement of belief, the source of which I cannot now remember, that "God's mercy is ten times as great as His infinite justice." I think that is right.

So, while I firmly support the necessity of "entering through the narrow gate," of confessing and repenting for sin, and for seeking the grace and healing of the sacraments, especially Reconciliation, I think it may be too soon to claim positively that "Not everybody gets into heaven." That is certainly a good rule of thumb, to avoid the sin of presumption, but I think there is room to believe otherwise and still be a good Catholic, for the foregoing reasons.

I am sensitive to this philosophy because my father was a Lutheran, for whom sinning was essentially a learning experience, to be made right, if possible. He was saved by FAITH, He was a good and holy man, and I cannot believe that a just and loving God would hold him in contempt for living his life in a way that he sincerely believed was his sacred moral responsibility. You can read about him at here, the eulogy I gave at a mass said for him after he died.

My state in life brings me into contact with all kinds of people, many, perhaps most, of whom are working out their salvation as I am doing, trying to do what they believe is right, avoiding what they believe is wrong, and getting up and starting again when they are knocked down. We used to claim that only Catholics in good standing could be saved, because "Outside the Church" there is no Salvation."

Chapter II, "On the People of God" of The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, promulgated on November 21, 1964, begins at paragraph 9 of the Constitution with the statement that "At all times and in every race God has given welcome to whosoever fears Him and does what is right." Paragraph 16 expounds on this assertion by listing several religions other than Catholicism that are associated in various ways with the teaching, belief and practice of the Catholic Church. Perhaps a more appropriate statement of doctrine is that "whosoever fears Him and does what is right," regardless of how he perceives those terms, is a member of the People of God, the Church, "outside of which there is no salvation," because there may not be anybody outside.

On the other hand, the Baptist religion, and many others, greatly discount personal responsibility for one's salvation and maintain instead that each person is predestined for salvation or damnation by a primordial decree of God. The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, with Scriptural Proofs, Chapter 3, explains it this way:

Paragraph 3. "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, (I Timothy 5:21; Matthew 25:34) to the praise of His glorious grace; (Ephesians 1:5, 6) others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice. (Romans 9:22, 23; Jude 4)"

Paragraph 4. "These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. (II Timothy 2:19; John 13:18)"

Paragraph 5. "Those of mankind that are predestinated to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, (Ephesians 1:4, 9, 11; Romans 8:30; II Timothy 1:9; I Thessalonians 5:9) without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving Him thereunto. (Romans 9:13, 16; Ephesians 2:5, 12)"

Paragraph 6. "As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so He hath, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto; (I Peter 1:2; II Thessalonians 2:13) wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, (I Thessalonians 5:9, 10) are effectually called unto faith in Christ, by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, (Romans8:30; Thessalonians 2:13) and kept by His power through faith unto salvation; (I Peter 1:5) neither are any other redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only. (John 10:26, 17:9, 6:64)"

Paragraph 7. "The doctrine of the high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in His Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election; (I Thessalonians 1:4, 5; II Peter 1:10) so shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, (Ephesians 1:6; Romans 11:33) reverence, and admiration of God, and of humility, (Romans 11:5, 6, 20) diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel. (Luke 10:20)"

I find the "Scriptural Proofs" of this doctrine to be less than compelling. My response is this:

These statements represent the most basic, fundamental and intractable point of disagreement between Catholics, Baptists and all other Calvinists as well. Catholics believe immeasurably far more in the saving power of Jesus Christ than what is implied by the foregoing statements. We find repugnant the very idea, to say no more, that God would, for any reason or purpose, create any rational creature for "condemnation," without hope of forgiveness or redemption whatever, or that salvation through the merits of Jesus Christ is available only to some and not to others, as if Adam's sin were somehow more powerful and encompassing than Christ's redemption. We take the opposite view, that God's gift of eternal life is, and has always been available to all men, that is, all human beings, as it was initially to all the angels, without exception. (Matthew 16:27, Luke 16:16 John 1:7, 9; 5:23-24; 6:45, 51; 7:17; 9:31; 10:9; 12:26, 32, 47, Acts 10:34; 17:30; 17:31; 22:15, Romans 2:6, 10; 5:18; 12:3, I Corinthians 3:5, 8, 10, 13, 14, 18; 4:5; 7:17, 24; 11:3; 12:7, 11; 15:23, II Corinthians 8:3; 9:7, Galatians 6:4, 5, Ephesians 3:8, c; 6:8, Colossians 1:28, I Thessalonians 3:12; 5:14, 15, I Timothy 2:1, 4; 4:10, II Timothy 2:24, Titus 2:11; 3:2, Hebrews 2:9; 12:14, James 1:5, I Peter 1:17; 2:17; 3:15; 4:10, I John 2:1; 3:3, Revelation 3:20; 20:13; 22:2)

Catholics recognize, of course, that the term "elect" or "election" is used 28 times in the King James Bible, possibly because the translators intended their Bible to say what they wanted, rather than what was implied by earlier documents. We consider that in all cases in which it can be taken to indicate a prior predestination by God, it can also be understood to mean those whom God in His unlimited knowledge of past, present and future, knows will be saved through freely cooperating with His saving grace, which is available to all mankind, without exception, and who will freely reject those graces that are utterly sufficient for their salvation. (I Timothy 2:4) To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore He establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", He includes in it each person's free response to his grace.

We do not pretend to understand, with the limitations of our human intellect, how God can elect who will be saved, in the sense of knowing beforehand what their free choice will be, and yet not are not predestined by Him for that end. Catholics believe absolutely that the saving power of the merits of Jesus is infinitely greater than the condemning power of the sin of Adam. We maintain that salvation through Jesus Christ is at least available to all those tainted by the rebellion of Adam unless, like Adam, they make a positive, deliberate, conscious choice to reject it.

Also, while we admit the possibility of condemnation of human beings, we do not conclude that any are, have been, or will be actually condemned. We believe that certain specific deceased individuals the canonized saints, as well as unknown others, have been saved and are now "in heaven," in the presence of God, but we do not know positively that anybody is "in hell," which, after all, was prepared specifically "for the devil and his angels." Our unshakable belief in the unlimited saving power of Christ's Redemption, and in the equally unlimited love and mercy of God, holds out the possibility that everyone, without exception, eventually may be admitted to the glory of eternal salvation, through his cooperation with grace given him through the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which are absolutely sufficient, regardless of his prior sinfulness, possibly by repentence at the moment of his death.

I think that the parables of the Good Shepherd and the Lost Coin are direct refutation of the idea that any individuals are "left to act in their sin to their just condemnation," as if the the Savior of the whole world had come to call only the rightous, and not sinners, to repentence! Indeed, what proves God's love for sinners is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!

What do you think?

John Lindorfer