"Let us walk by this way, Brethren, that we may attain to the inheritance of eternal life. For he who enters in by this way will beyond doubt be the inheritor of eternal life. For this way is life. And though few there are who find it, yet let us, dear Brethren, not be deprived of it. Let none of us walk outside this way; lest we take the road to perdition; as was said by the prophet: Lest the Lord be angry and you perish from the just way (Ps. ii. 12). Let us listen to the Lord speaking to us. I am the Light. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Life. I am the Door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. I am the Way. He that followeth me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Let us therefore follow Him on this blessed way which all have walked who have loved Christ. Its entrance is linked with tribulation and with torment; but there is blessed peace there. The gates of this way are narrow and forbidding; but its reward is joy. Its entry is strait, but the place of rest within is wide and spacious. The gates of this way are fasting, prayer, compunction, vigils, humility of soul, poverty of spirit, contempt of the flesh, care of the soul, sleeping on the ground, eating of dry food, lack of comfort, harshness, hunger, thirst, nakedness, mercy, tears, grieving, poverty, groanings, genuflexions, humiliations, persecutions, revilings from others, to be hated and not to hate, to hear evil and to render good for evil, to forgive debts to our debtors, to lay down our lives for our friends. Lastly, to shed our blood for Christ when the occasion calls for it. These are the narrow gates, and the strait way; these are the steps, the approaches, which lead to a most blessed reward, the Kingdom of Heaven itself, of which there will be no end.
Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction; whose steps are now joyous and gay, but beyond the gates they are sad; here they are sweet, there they are more bitter than gall; here the steps are quick, there they are slow and encumbered with pain. Here they seem as nothing, there they shall surround him like wild impenitent beasts attacking; as the prophet says: In the evil day the iniquity of my heel shall encompass me (Ps. xlviii. 6); that is, the evil of this life, that is, the wide gate and the broad ways of which the Apostle speaks, numbering them one by one; and of which are: fornication, adultery, shamelessness, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, and such like (Gal. v. 20), which are the steps of the wide way. And akin to these is immoderate laughter, rioting, lute playing, spectacles, piping, dances, the baths, soft clothing, sumptuous eating, flattery, uproar, prolonged sleep, soft beds, varieties of food, an insatiable desire for food, fraternal hate, and what is worse than all this, impenitence, and never to recall to mind our departure from this life. These are the steps of that dangerous way along which so many now walk.
And such as these shall come to a fitting inn. They shall find hunger in place of delights, thirst for their drunkenness, pain for their repose, mourning in place of laughter, weeping for piping, the worm for their swollen bodies, grief for their ease and sloth of mind, for their witchcrafts association with the devil, for their gaming tables they shall be given over to the company of the demons, for their incantations and divinations they will be given over to the authors of these and other evil practices, exterior darkness, the gehenna of fire and similar things, which are the wages of Death, where he feeds his sheep, his own disciples, his own friends, who have entered in by the wide and broad gate, according to the saying of the holy prophet: They are laid in hell like sheep: death shall feed upon them (Ps. xlviii. 15).
But we, dearest Brethren, turning aside from this perilous and troubled way, let us listen to what Christ says to us. Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able (Lk. xiii. 24)."
CALL TO ACTION: Consider that EACH person calling himself "Christian" fathoms that he/she will be saved, yet Holy Scripture says quite the contrary. Contemplate what it takes to be among the FEW!
Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 13: 20-21)
For MANY are called, but FEW are chosen. (Matthew 22:14)
Source: Quote above from "The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers" (St. Ephraim's Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost), Volume III, pages 306-307; Henry Regnery Company (copyright 1955); Imprimatur: Cornelius Ep. Corcagiensis; Nihil Obstat: Jacobus Canonicus Bastible, Censor Deputatus
Photo by Andy Mai