22 Jesus was traveling through towns and villages on his way to Jerusalem, teaching as he went. 23 Someone asked him, "Teacher, will only a few people be saved?" Jesus replied to them all, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

25 When the owner of the house gets up to close the door, and you are standing outside knocking and saying, 'Master, open the door for us,' he will answer, 'I don't know who you are.

26 Then you will say, 'But we ate and drank with you, and in the public square we received your teaching.' 27 Here is what he will answer you: 'I don't know who you are. Depart from me, you who do evil.'

28 Then you will know bitter regret, especially when you are thrown out of the banquet of God's domain, where the fathers of the nation, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as the prophets, are sitting. 29 From then on, people from the four corners of the earth will take part in the banquet of God's domain. 30 Thus, those who were last will become first, and those who were first will find themselves last."

What is the meaning of life?

I love heartwarming stories that show the beautiful side of human beings. Here's one. It takes place in my region. Ric was 14 when his mother, who suffered from mental illness, kicked him out of the house. With nowhere to go, he turned to alcohol and drugs. Finally, to survive, he found a job as a dishwasher in a university restaurant. One day, one of the chefs told him he could do better and helped him get into school. With his degrees in hotel and restaurant management and culinary arts in hand, Chef Ric moved to the other side of the country. Despite having an excellent job, something was missing. He returned to his native region to join the City Mission to volunteer serving meals to the homeless. Looking at the people he was serving, he saw himself when he was younger: an ordinary person, destitute and just in need of help. Then, when he heard these people say they could wash dishes, cook, or help in some other way, he decided to launch a restaurant training program, with the help of a city grant and by offering a catering service with the help of the trainees.

When the program started, most of the trainees were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Today, due to all the changes in the world, most of the trainees are newcomers to Canada, including asylum seekers and refugees. The people who arrive have been mistreated by various systems. They may be close to being homeless, have suffered from addiction, have suffered from a mental health problem for which they have been unable to obtain treatment, or have been unemployed for a very long time. Many people arrive in rather desperate situations and leave with great self-confidence, pride, and a professional diploma that allows them to work in the restaurant industry. Free and open to all, this training has only one requirement: a genuine desire to change one's life. The placement rate for trainees is 90%. Chef Ric has only one goal: to help others, just as he was helped.

In a way, Chef Ric has experienced salvation, and in turn he seeks to save others. Today's Gospel begins with the question of salvation: "Will only a few people be saved?" This is a question that may seem strange. What exactly is it about? In fact, it is a typically Jewish question. For, talking about being saved can of course refer to a difficult situation such as illness, unemployment, or homelessness, but it can also refer, as is the case in the Jewish world, to life in the hereafter. It should be remembered that since the 2nd century BCE, the belief has spread in certain Jewish circles that during God's final intervention at the end of time, God will rise the people who are languishing in Sheol so that they may be judged, declaring some worthy of eternal life and others doomed to eternal shame and confusion (see Dan 12:2). Of course, this promise of eternal life was initially addressed only to Jews, and among them, only to the righteous, i.e., those who practiced the Law. Thus, the question posed to Jesus becomes: "Will only a few righteous Jews inherit eternal life?"

Such a question raises controversy, even when the ethnic restriction to the Jewish people is removed. For my parents, it caused anxiety at the mere thought of having to face the severity of a judging God. Jehovah's Witnesses have resolved the issue: they will be among the 144,000 chosen ones mentioned in Revelation 7:4. But doesn't such a question distort the meaning of life? For life then becomes merely a vestibule to the afterlife, where attention is focused on the ticket for passage. This is how it gave rise to the exercise of power by the Church, which boasted of having the "keys" to the Kingdom. But why not change our perspective and see the afterlife as the organic continuation of this life? It is time to listen to Luke on the subject.

First of all, Luke is the only one of the evangelists to present us with such a question. Why? He wants to use it to introduce four fragments from a source he shares with Matthew, called the Q Document, a collection of Jesus' words, but which he organizes in his own way and inserts differently from Matthew. The first fragment concerns an exhortation to enter through the narrow gate. What is this about? To speak of a narrow gate is to speak of a gate through which one can only pass one at a time; it is therefore a gate that restricts entry. We note that this image likens the afterlife to a house, a heavenly house. In the same vein, Jesus also spoke of the afterlife using the image of entering the Kingdom of God. Why is the gate narrow? "Many will try to enter and will not be able to." What exactly is this inability? Twice in his Gospel, Luke asks the question about the conditions for inheriting eternal life (Lk 10:25; 18:18), and the answer always boils down to love of God and neighbor, which gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan. Thus, this Kingdom of God can be seen as the Kingdom of love and compassion, and if people have not practiced love throughout their life, they will be unable to meet the standards of the house of love, much like an athlete who does not meet the standards of the Olympic Games. Note that no one is blocking his way to any one. But he will not feel at home in this house.

The second fragment presents a mini-parable, that of a landowner for whom the time has come to close the door of his estate, condemning latecomers to knock on the door to be let in. Originally, this fragment was probably aimed at all those among the Jewish people who wanted nothing to do with Jesus' preaching and remained on the margins of his teaching; with Jesus' departure, it is now too late. The reason for the owner's refusal to open the door can be summed up as follows: you have nothing in common with me and with those inside the estate, so there is no point in opening the door and trying to integrate you with those who live there; in the house of love, you will remain strangers.

The third fragment offers a scenario that first refers to all those Jews of Jesus' time who frequented him and even heard his teaching. What are they being criticized for? They did not follow up on his teaching. This fragment literally puts this sentence in Jesus' mouth: "Depart from me, all you workers of injustice." In Jewish circles, injustice does not refer primarily to individual rights, but to behavior that does not correspond to what God expects of a person, which can be summed up as love of God and neighbor.

The fourth fragment presents the fate of all those Jews who failed to recognize in Jesus a word from God and who now regret their decision, seeing themselves excluded from the banquet in the Kingdom of God and replaced by those pagans who come from the four corners of the earth. Hence the conclusion: the last (the pagans) become the first in the Kingdom, the first (the Jews) become the last.

What, then, is Luke's intention in organizing such a narrative? His audience is not primarily Jewish, but Greek. Moreover, in his Gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where death awaits him. To ask the question of salvation, and therefore of the conditions for entering the afterlife, is to ask the question of the meaning of life, for the two are organically linked. The afterlife is identified with the Mystery called God, where unlimited, unconditional, unrestricted love reigns. Life then becomes a long and patient learning process of such love, which constantly seeks the good of others and the good of oneself. Thus, when asked how many will be saved, i.e., who will enter the Kingdom of the Mystery of love, Luke, without answering the question directly, suggests that it is a bad question, and instead focuses attention on the path of life that leads to this Kingdom by introducing his first two fragments from the Q Document. The first presents life as an athlete exercising his muscles (the Greek verb translated as "strive" is used by St. Paul to refer to the athlete), except that the goal is not competition, but to be able to enter the world of love. The second fragment presents life as a limited time granted to acquire this mentality of love, under penalty of finding oneself a stranger to this world at the end of one's life. The last two fragments dispel two illusions: first, the belief that it is enough to be baptized, to attend the Christian community, and even to listen to the Gospels without allowing oneself to be transformed by the Mystery of love; and second, the belief that the Jews were more fortunate because they were part of God's chosen people.

Life is made up of actions that make us happy or proud, and others that we regret. We could describe this life as a series of salvation deeds, where events and people help us to leave behind what is not us so that our true being, or if you will, the best version of ourselves, can emerge. This best version contains the elements of the Mystery of love at the source of existence, of which Jesus was the perfect echo. Therefore, there is something inappropriate about asking how many people will be saved, a question that no one can answer. For anyone who believes in the afterlife, there is only one certainty: only the best version of oneself will be saved or preserved. The rest is wasted time and effort.

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-André Gilbert, Gatineau, July 2025