Making it hard on ourselves to enter heaven
10/15/2017
Matthew 22:1-10 Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief
priests and elders of the people in parables, saying, "The kingdom of
heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He
dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they
refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those
invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened
cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast."' Some
ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants,
'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go
out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.'
The servants wen out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good
alike, and the hall was filled with guests."
At Trinity Junior High I like to say that we prepare our
students not only for Harvard but also for Heaven. But let me ask you: which
one do you think is harder to get into, Harvard or Heaven? I bet most people
would say, “Well, only the brightest bulbs in the box go to Harvard but
hopefully everyone eventually goes to Heaven.” I sure hope the entrance exam
for Heaven is a lot easier than the one for Harvard.
Others might answer that getting into heaven is not a matter
of I.Q. but a question of I.D. That is, you have to be a certain kind of
person, or belong to a given group or religion. A man arrived at the gates of
heaven. St. Peter asked him, “Religion?”
The man said: “Methodist.” St. Peter looked down on his list and said:
“Go to Room 24, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8.” Another man arrived at
the gates of paradise and was asked: “Religion?” He answered: “Lutheran.” St.
Peter instructed him: “Go to Room 18, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8.” A
third fellow makes it to the Pearly Gates and is asked, “Religion?” He says:
“Presbyterian.” St. Peter tells him: “Go to Room 11, but be very quiet as you
pass Room 8.” The man is curious and asks: “I can understand there being
different rooms for different denominations, but why be quiet as I go by Room
8?” St. Peter answered: “Well, the Baptists are in Room 8, and they think they
are the only ones here.”
In all fairness, Room 8 could have been for Catholics, too.
For the longest time the Church taught “extra ecclesiam nulla salus,” which
means “outside the Church there is no salvation.” But now we’re a little more
open minded about salvation. In other words, some say everyone will make it to
heaven, while others say that only a chosen few will be saved. So, which will
be harder to get into: Harvard to Heaven? Will everyone get in, or just a few,
or no one?
Today’s gospel weighs in on this question, and Jesus offers
a parable to help the people understand his teaching. A king invites everyone
to a wedding banquet for his son. He sends invitations at first to chosen
guests, and then he sends in again, and finally he ends up inviting everyone.
In other words, everyone is welcome into heaven, as it says in 1 Timothy 2:4:
“God desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” But
does everyone accept the invitation? Sadly, no. Jesus explains: “Some ignored
the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business,” and a
third to take his entrance exam into Harvard. That is, the hardness of getting
into heaven is not on God’s side but rather on our side. To be precise, the
hardness is not in heaven at all, but only in our hard hearts that prefer other
things to heaven. If someone doesn’t make it to heaven, it won’t be God’s
fault; it will be our own choice, because we ignored the invitation.
Today I want to give you three reasons to send your junior
high students to Trinity. Basically, we teach them how to get to heaven (as
well as Harvard) in three different ways. First, we teach them that there
actually is a heaven. The existence of heaven may sound obvious to you sitting
in Mass, but there is a rising tide of atheism sweeping across America. If you
want to read a thorough analysis of modern atheism, I highly recommend the
book, The Drama of Atheistic Humanism by Henry de Lubac. He argues that the
thinking of philosophers like Fredrick Nietzsche and August Comte and Ludwig
Feuerbach has filtered into American culture and caused God to be evicted not
only from the courtroom, but also from the classroom. And because there is no
prayer in public school, students only worry about getting into Harvard and
forget about getting into Heaven. But that tide of atheism has not reached the
steps of Trinity Junior High. Our
students know both Harvard and Heaven exist, and they prepare for both.
The second way we prepare them for heaven is by holding them
to a higher standard of behavior. We don’t expect them merely to do good and
avoid evil; they must ask what would Jesus do? And then do likewise. Now, this
is not very helpful when we play football, because we get killed. Some of our
boys don’t tackle and say: “That’s not what Jesus would do!” I answer: “No, hit
the guy first! Then you can apologize later.” To be sure our students get into
trouble like all teens do, but then they realize they didn’t just break a rule,
but they broke a Commandment, and ultimately, they broke a heart, namely,
Jesus’ heart. At Trinity students aren’t expected to just be decent human
beings; they must be disciples of Christ. Trinity students know God wants
everyone to be saved, but we accept that invitation by the way we live.
The third way Trinity teaches students the way to heaven is
by helping them experience a deeper joy, namely, the joy of Jesus. The students
go to Mass every Wednesday, they go to confession twice a year, they make an
annual retreat, they do hours of community service, and every morning they pray
the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, the “Pater Noster.” They’ve been doing that all
year and now don’t need a cheat sheet. We don’t want Trinity students to be
like the people C. S. Lewis wrote about when he said: “We are half-hearted
creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is
offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum
because he cannot imagine what is meant by a holiday at the sea” (Essay, “The
Weight of Glory”). At Trinity we teach students that heaven is like a holiday
at the sea and Harvard, by comparison, is like making mud pies in a slum.
Which is harder to enter: Harvard or Heaven? I never made it
to Harvard, but I hope I still make it to Heaven. The only hard part of
entering heaven is the hardness in our own hearts.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
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