"How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few."
-- Mt
7:6, 12-14
The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and
the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the
responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of
his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to
conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way
is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and
those who find it are few."
Since we know neither the day
nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch
constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is
completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be
numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful
servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer
darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."
-- CCC 1036
The Pharisee might at least have said: "I am not as many men are." But what meaneth "other men"? All other men except himself. "I," said he, "am righteous; others are sinners." "I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers," and then he took occasion, from the neighborhood of the publican, to plume himself "or even," quoth he, "as this publican." "I am alone," he thought, "that publican" is one of the others. Mine own righteousness maketh the gulf between me and the wicked, such as he is.