As we get to this time of the year, with All Saints Day and All Souls Day almost upon us, it is natural for our thoughts to turn to the question which someone asked Jesus (Lk 13: 22-30) as he walked through towns and villages on His way to Jerusalem: "Will only a few people be saved?" In other words, is salvation for everyone, or will it be just for the few really-righteous people around? Jesus never answers the question. What He says is: "Strive to enter through the narrow gate." In other words, do your best to live the life I am preaching about and modelling. He goes on to talk about people being "cast out" and "wailing and grinding of teeth" and that "some who are last will be first, and some are first who will be last." Lots of provocative language, to be sure, but nowhere does Jesus say whether or not "only a few people will be saved." If you think about it, there is probably a good reason for Jesus to be so non-responsive. Were He to say that everyone is saved, then wouldn't that mean that, at least for some people, paying attention to what Jesus is saying would be unimportant? Why not do whatever you want-- everyone gets saved anyway, so who cares-- might be the attitude. On the other hand, if hardly-anyone gets saved, wouldn't that cause us to lose hope? Why try "to enter through the narrow gate," when hardly-anyone can do that? When you only have a one-in-a-hundred chance of doing something, lots of people won't even try. So Jesus wisely leaves the matter ambiguous. The result is that the Church has had widely-different views of what answer is the right one. People like St. Augustine have been proponents of the idea that most people do not get saved, while more-modern authors, including the evangelical pastor Rob Bell in his book of a few years ago entitled "God Wins", have been of the view that Jesus' Pascal Mystery (passion, death and resurrection) was so monumental that it succeeded in saving everyone. After all, why else would He descend into hell (as the Apostles'Creed says) if not to rescue from it those who were there? And why would a God who is love, and who shows that love towards us as mercy, not want all people to be with Him? In his YouTube discussion of the subject, Bishop Robert Barron says that we don't know what the right answer is, but that it is his view that we are entitled to hope that hell is empty-- that all are saved, not just a few. Moreover, it is standard Catholic teaching that there is not a single person in history-- not one-- who we can say with certainty is in hell. No, not Adolph Hitler, or Joseph Stalin or Pol Pot or anyone else-- no one that is definitely not saved. So what does that mean for us? I think it means we should do what Jesus says-- try to enter through the narrow gate. That's what we should do not just because it seems like the surest path to heaven, but also because it is the path to our best life here. The "narrow gate" is the gate that leads to true happiness, even though in our short-sightedness we may not think so in a given moment. That's why Jesus tells us to take that path. He doesn't want us unhappy here-- He loves us after all, and wants what is best for us not just in the next life but in this one as well. Strive to enter through the narrow gate, and leave the rest to God.