The question of how many souls will be saved is one which has stimulated much reflection and discussion since the earliest days of Christianity. For the greater part of the Church’s history, many theologians and saints tended towards what might to us look like a gloomy view as far as numbers are concerned. The opinion that many, and perhaps the majority, would be damned, was the default position. In recent times a much more optimistic view has come to prevail within the Church. This can be taken to the disastrous extreme that funerals come to resemble canonisation ceremonies at which it is assumed that the deceased is already in Heaven, and we are not even encouraged to pray for his immortal soul.
In the Gospel of St Luke (13:23-30) a man asks Our Lord: “Lord, are they few that are saved?” Our Lord deflects the question, addressing each one of us with His response: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate: for many, I say to you, will seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and shall knock at the door, saying: Lord, open to us: and he answering shall say to you: I know not whence you are. Then you shall begin to say: We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. And he shall say to you: depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” The Ulster firebrand Ian Paisley was once preaching with gusto on this text when an elderly woman in his congregation interrupted “But I ain’t got no teeth!” Fixing her with a withering gaze he replied slowly: “Madam, teeth will be provided.”
Our Lord’s words should leave us in no doubt that our salvation is not something that can be taken for granted. Hell exists and it is populated.
The teaching of the Church, however, is that God creates each and every one of us for eternal life. During this earthly existence He offers us every grace we need, and more than we need, to achieve salvation. And yet He respects our freedom to embrace or to reject these graces. A grace is a supernatural gift, and it is in the nature of a gift that it must be freely given and freely received. It is in the Sacrament of Baptism that Sanctifying Grace is infused into our hearts. And when we die and come face to face with God in our particular judgement, it is the presence or, may Heaven forbid, the absence of Sanctifying Grace in our souls that will determine our eternal destiny.
Living the life of grace, however, must never be reduced to a mechanical box ticking activity in which we do little more than striving to avoid mortal sin and to fulfil our basic Christian duties such as Sunday Mass obligation and fasting before Holy Communion. The essence of the life of grace is nothing less than the wondrous reality of friendship with Our Lord, and participation in the life of the Blessed Trinity.
So if we are serious about salvation, we must cultivate this friendship, by living in His presence and opening our hearts to Him, sharing with Him our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears, in the confidence that He knows our frailties and our needs better than we could ever know them ourselves. He is all forgiving, but we must open our hearts to receive His forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance when we have separated ourselves from Him through sinning mortally. We must pray to Him every day and allow Him to communicate His divine life to us in abundance. The greatest token of this divine friendship is Holy Communion, in which He feeds us with His living and risen Body and Blood.
St Cyril of Alexandria explained that speculation about how many will be saved is ultimately a “useless” and “idle” exercise. The truth is that the proportion of the saved and the damned is not for us to know. We live in hope, and this hope is a supernatural virtue that was planted like a seed in our heart in Baptism, along with faith and charity. As with any virtue, these must be exercised in order that they might flourish and take possession of us. In this month of the Holy Cross give we thanks that Our Blessed Saviour and divine friend shed His blood for each and every one of us. The more we cultivate His friendship through prayer, through repentance when we fail Him, and through honouring His divine image within our neighbour, the more we shall come to rejoice in the assurance that everlasting life with Him in Heaven is well within our reach.
Father Julian Large