The Fewness of the Saved
January 11, 2024
How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!
— Matthew VII, 14
“The doctrine which naturally emerges from Our Lord’s words, that the majority of men follow the path of perdition may seem harsh and discouraging; there is no shortage of thoughtful minds who try to escape the conclusions which appear to flow from it …. Our Lord tells us that the immense influence of the majority of the men we live among is added to our own weakness and to our evil inclinations to lead us on. We shall always have the crowd against us: the example of the crowd has always held back, and continues to hold back, many souls in the pursuit of perfection. It is the example of the multitude among Catholics which ever provides a pretext for those outside her fold not to enter it. It is the example of the multitude of so-called Christians that closes the hearts of millions of unbelievers to the evidence of the Gospel.”
— Fr. Henry James Coleridge S.J., Life of Our Life (quoted in On the Fewness of the Saved, 2017)
