"Lord, will only a few be saved"
Gospel of Luke
Most retreat experiences start with a reflection on God's love and mercy. And this reflection is usually followed with the subject of salvation: How can we be saved?
In the Cursillo movement, for example, after the talk on God's love and Grace, we have one called "Obstacles to Grace". What are those things in our lives that prevent us from experiencing God's love? In The Life in the Spirit seminars, the session on God's love is followed by a session on "salvation". We know that God loves us; now how can we be saved. My eight day retreat that I've done many times starts with a reflection called "Alone with the Father", and is followed by "My Dark Side". In other words, my brokenness, my need for salvation.
Salvation means "God saves us". Notice I said "God saves us", not "God will save us". God's saving action is much broader than the event at the end of our lives. Right now, God desires to save us. Save us from what? God wants to save us from those influences in life that hold us prisoner, that keep us from being free, things like fear and hate.
What God wants for us, right at this moment, is our happiness, our peacefulness, our well-being, to be fully human and alive. God's act of saving us is a process that continues through the whole course of our lives and comes to fulfillment at the time of our death.
All of the above reflections on how to be saved are really a looking inward, through prayer, in order to see, not only our brokenness, but also our need for God's love in order that a transformation process may begin. The path that we seek is one of humility, one of surrender, and one of reliance on God's mercy and love. God becomes the instrument of our healing, the instrument of change.
St. Paul in his letter to the Romans says: "The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. We know that by turning everything to their good, God cooperates with those who love Him." What is your own experience of this? Do you not experience God's love calling you into that full embrace? Do you experience God saving you?
It can be quite unsettling for some to hear Jesus say: "Try your best to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter, and will not be able to." For me, what Jesus is saying here is that many are refusing to travel the path of humility, the path of surrender, the path of reliance on God's mercy and love. Many are refusing to be an instrument of God's healing, God's embrace. They may have heard about God, even toyed with religion and religious life, but have not entered into the transformation process that can only happen as we enter into relatedness with Him.
We are all familiar with the reading from revelation: "Jesus says: I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and them with me."
I stand at the door and knock. Such a small decision for us to make, but perhaps one of the most important decisions we'll ever make. Our salvation begins when we open that door.
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