Salvation and rejection

Our gospel reading today is a message from our Lord Jesus Christ on who will be saved and those who cannot be saved. It is a lesson on salvation and rejection. In fact this scripture passage today debunks the Calvinist thought…“Christ died on the cross for my sins. All I need to do to go to heaven is to believe. It is a free gift. I do not have to earn my salvation. Christ already paid for my salvation with his Blood.” This is their “Once saved, always saved!” doctrine, which is the subject of today’s gospel on Salvation and Rejection. You can read it in Luke 13: 22-30.

“22 [Jesus] passed through towns and villages teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. 25 After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, “I do not know where you are from.”

26 And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.” 27 Then he will say to you, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers! 28 And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.

29 And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

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If there is any nagging question that continually haunts the hearts and minds of all the peoples of this world…especially those who believe in life after death, it is a question of who will be saved and how? First of all, let me point out clearly that being a Christian is no guarantee that one can be saved and enter the kingdom of God in heaven. So if you meet a Catholic who proudly insists that only Catholics can be saved, then you should challenge that person’s intellect because he maybe well-read, but he has no humility in him. People from other faiths, as long as they have kind souls, can be saved.

As we wrote earlier, the Calvinists believe in the false doctrine of “Once saved, always saved” which the other denominations also concur…but not the Catholic Church and today’s gospel reading teaches us that we can be saved for various reasons like repentance of sin and going to confession. But Catholics who insist on being Catholics, yet these people even worship other deities, like the Chinese God of Mercy, then they have doomed their souls because it is clearly written in today’s scripture reading. 

In last Friday’s gospel reading about the Greatest Commandment, when the scribes asked the Lord what is the greatest Commandment. Well if you opened your Bibles to Mark 12: 28-34, you will read that conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and the scribes who correctly recited the “Shema” which every devout Jew recites before he sleeps and after he wakes up. “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Since the scribes answered correctly, our Lord Jesus said “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” For me this statement is quite disturbing because Jesus didn’t say that if you did this…you have gained eternal life. To gain eternal life, you open your Bibles to John 6: 54 when our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”  Now these are the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ on how we can truly gain eternal life.

So what did our Lord Jesus Christ mean when he said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” Being strong doesn’t have to mean physically strong. It can mean humility, which is often mistaken for weakness. After all, being humble is more difficult than being boastful. The reason why many people who left the Catholic Church do not return is their pride. Some are just ashamed to return to the true Church that our Lord Jesus Christ founded.

So when Judgment day comes…and the heavens would be closed, these people who profess to know our Lord Jesus Christ yet they continue to teach their false doctrine “Once saved always saved” they are the ones whom our Lord told us in today’s gospel, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me you evil doers.”  I advice to you is stay within the Magisterium of the Catholic Church for the church teaches God’s salvific plan of redemption of sinners.

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