Urgent Freedom

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13).

There’s an exit on one of our local interstates that I call the “Jesus Exit,” because there sits a church with a billboard-sized sign of the famous Warner Sallman painting, “The Head of Christ,” which depicts our Lord looking up toward His Father in Heaven. Underneath it reads, “ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT ROAD?” It’s a message that continuously reminds the multitude of travelers of the critical choice we must make, since we don’t know the day or hour that our earthly life will end.

This Tuesday’s Gospel parable of the “two ways” will teach us the significance our moral decisions have on our salvation. The way of Christ, which is the right road, can be challenging and difficult at times, but it leads to life. The way of sin, which is the wrong road, is easier, because it is more pleasurable – but it leads to eternal fire. “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.” (Catechism, Para. 1036)

It’s now, in this life, that we’re offered the choice between life and death, and it’s only by the road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, from which we’re excluded by mortal sin. We must make the choice to reconcile ourselves with God, then continue to follow the right road, which leads to eternal joy. Jesus said that those who find it are few. Still, each of us can use our freedom and choose to be on it.