Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praised be Jesus and Mary.
For the sake of our salvation, our Lord came down from heaven.
We say this every time we recite the creed on Sunday,
that our Lord came down from heaven for the sake of our salvation.
And what does our Lord come to save us from?
He comes to save us from the eternal pains of hell.
This is our salvation. Our Lord opens the gates of heaven.
He comes down and he opens the gates of heaven by the redemption.
And he shows us the way to enter into heaven.
Because now that the gates are open, we have the opportunity to enter.
And we also have the hope to enter.
We have the hope of being saved.
But there are two sins against this virtue of hope that one can fall into.
One is the sin of despair.
Of thinking,
of thinking that our salvation is impossible.
And so the reading today, the responsorial psalm,
talks to us about God's mercy so that we don't fall into despair.
This responsorial psalm says,
My hope, O Lord, is in your mercy.
We hope for his mercy.
We entrust ourselves to his mercy.
But there is also another,
another sin against hope.
And that is the sin of presumption.
And that's what our Lord wants to prevent us from in today's gospel.
When he tells us to strive to enter through the narrow gate.
He tells us to strive so that we might not think our salvation is automatic.
Or something easy that we really don't have to merit.
Or that we don't have to work for.
But our Lord says strive to enter through.
And for this reason he also reveals to us the relative number of those who will be saved.
He didn't have to reveal this to us.
When he's asked, Lord, will only a few people be saved?
Here our Lord says strive to enter through the narrow gate.
This is St. Luke's Gospel.
In St. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 7,
he says that,
The gate is narrow and the way is difficult.
And few there are who find it.
But the road is wide and the way is easy to perdition.
And many there are who go that way.
So see this comparison between the many and the few.
He doesn't tell us precise numbers.
But he does tell us the relative amount.
By telling us about the many.
And the few.
And he reveals this to us again.
So that we don't fall into presumption.
That we may strive and do our part.
So as to receive the crown of eternal life.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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