Once, when they asked Pope St. John XXIII how many people worked in the Vatican, he responded in his characteristic humor: “About half.” It may also serve as a rough estimate of how many people will be saved.
Salvation Taken Seriously
Several passages in the New Testament invite us to reflect on the seriousness of our eternal salvation. As we move further through the liturgical year and as we read further through the Gospels, more apocalyptic scenes appear.
Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left (Mt. 24:40-41).
Similarly, today’s Gospel shows five wise virgins and five foolish virgins (cf. Mt. 25:1-13). I wouldn’t say we should positively affirm that only half of people will get into Heaven, but these Gospel passages should get us thinking. They are not intended to give us a mathematical calculation of how many people will be saved. Rather, they remind us that not everyone will be ready when the Lord comes.
Who Will Be Saved?
Too frequently, people seem to think Heaven is a slam dunk. It is almost as if you have to be a world-class depraved psycho maniac to be condemned to Hell, at least in the world’s eyes. Many people seem to think that they will somehow pass whatever test awaits them.
The truth is, we don’t know what happens to every person, but we should do everything in our power to correspond to the graces God offers us. Is it really that easy to go to Heaven, or conversely, that hard to go to Hell? We have heard that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. This refers to the many people who desire to improve their lives but never act on that desire.
Thinking back to the five wise and the five foolish virgins, it’s not about worrying which half I am in, but rather whether I am doing all I can to correspond to God’s grace in my life. Am I trimming my lamp and making sure it has enough oil, or am I allowing my spiritual life to grow cold?
Jesus wants us to give priority to him and his kingdom. We trim our lamps by having spiritual discipline. This can be as simple as making it to daily Mass a few times a week or spending 10 minutes meditating on the daily Gospel. The oil in our lamps can represent our sacramental life. By receiving the sacraments, we are filled with grace that powers our spiritual lives.
I like this way of looking at it because it makes it clear that we are saved by God’s grace, but without obfuscating our active cooperation with his free gift. On our own, we are nothing, but the good news is that we are not alone.
The Coming Apocalypse
Just as the Gospel of Matthew progresses towards more apocalyptic things as the story draws closer to the Passion of Jesus, our liturgical year introduces more apocalyptic themes as we draw closer to the Solemnity of Christ the King, celebrated on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time.
God created us without asking our opinion, but he will not save us without involving our free cooperation with his grace. As St. Augustine said, “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us.” He wants us to cooperate with our own work of salvation.
Shorter Days
One of the beautiful things about living the liturgical year in the Northern Hemisphere is that there is often a certain congruity between the seasons and the liturgical time. As we draw closer to the end of the liturgical year, the days are also getting noticeably shorter. It can feel as if the day is dying. It is a reminder to us that we should contemplate the brevity and fleeting nature of life.
The message of the five wise virgins is that we should always be ready for the coming of the King. Jesus will return gloriously and will judge the living and the dead, as we remember each time that we recite the Creed at Mass. The faith is not a series of nice reflections to help us make peace with our earthly existence. It is a way of coming into contact with the deeper reality that gives this existence meaning and purpose. Let us, therefore, keep our lamps burning by living a strong spiritual discipline and by strengthening our spiritual lives through frequent reception of the sacraments.
Well said! Your comment, "...people seem to think Heaven is a slam dunk. It is almost as if you have to be a world-class depraved psycho maniac to be condemned to Hell, at least in the world’s eyes." made me laugh. We have so corrupted the meaning of "Judge not" to the point we have judged everybody goes to heaven!