| Heaven, So Who Is Going
There? |
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by Scapular John |
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Summary
Picture of Jesus with two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
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Jesus said
in Matthew chapter 7, verse 14, "How narrow is the gate and strait is
the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find
it!"
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Picture of Stadium
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If you take the Lord's word,
"few" and ask how many is that? The answer is
amazing. A survey was taken with the following question.
"If you had a 1000 people and I needed a few, how many would that
be? Statistically the answer is about 5. Percentage wise it is
1/2 of 1 percent! And this is a very generous use of the word
"few."
Perhaps, more correct number can be had by taking into account
the 8 who survived in Noah's Arc, Lot and his family that escaped the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorra, many other Bible references and revelations
from the lives of the Saints.
That number can be expressed in the
following example. If you had a stadium filled with 65,000 adults,
about 6 of them would make it into Heaven. The other 64,995 would go to
Hell. This means about 1 out of 10,000 would make it into
Heaven.
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Picture of the Lord's Last Supper
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Why is this? Jesus gives one of
the reasons why in the Gospel of Saint John. In chapter 6, verses 54-55,
Jesus said, "Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of
man and drink his blood, shall not have life in you. He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him
up in the last day."
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Picture of sick and dying |
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St. Paul tells us that we must do this with
great appreciation and awe, otherwise, the Bread of Life becomes the Bread
of death. And this lack of discernment is why so many of us are
sick, infirmed and have died. This he states in 1st Corinthians
chapter 11, versus 29-30, "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily
eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the
Lord. Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you: and many
sleep."
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Picture of few souls entering into Heaven
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From this we can see why very few
Catholics make it into Heaven.
And what about those who are not
Catholic? What can they possibly say to Jesus on judgment day?
What can say, especially when they convicted themselves by reading and
hearing the Word of Our Lord in so many other places about the critical
importance of receiving His Body and
Blood? What reason can they give for not acting on it for their
salvation?
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Picture of Divine Mercy
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While we can never doubt God's mercy, yet at the same time
it would seem that He would expect us to do all we can to be growing in
the fullness of Jesus' love by what He requires and by what we have
available to us.
A more in-depth article will soon follow.
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