Matthew 7:13-14

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

We live in a fallen realm, full of easy entertainment, flashy fixes to feelings of disconnection, and lies cloaked in truth. According to the teachings of Jesus Christ, the path to eternal life is simple, but not easy.

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist." - Charles Baudelaire.

While I see this as very true, I think what complicates this trick is imagining the devil as a cartoonish fiend with horns and a pitchfork. He would more likely look like an immoral salesman, with incredible observation skills, a sharp suit, a wickedly sharp intellect, and a convincing smile. Or a wise teacher more intent on the attentions of his acolytes than the salvation of their souls.

The rejection of religion and therefore God from public discourse has been unequivocally destructive to truth, beauty, and goodness. There is no place in modern culture that the disease of secularism has not touched. The words of Jesus are more relevant than ever.

So why are they not more often heeded?

There are probably as many reasons as there are people, but a few stand out in my mind.

One of the most destructive reasons, in my opinion, that Jesus' teachings are so often overlooked is because he is grouped with other amazing teachers that have shared their knowledge with people across time, in various places. Many people see Jesus as this really cool guy who had insightful things to say, stirred up some shit, and then died tragically. But this is a misunderstanding of the very thing that makes him different. He didn't come just to teach us how to be good people. He came as God himself to sacrifice his life to save each of us from the evil inherent in our world and in ourselves so that death would not be the end. He wasn't sharing a story of how to ease suffering, he was giving himself so that our suffering would not be meaningless.

Another reason is that a moral life is challenging. Not succumbing to all the ways we get pulled into addictive and destructive behavior is challenging. Feeling worthy of the love of God is challenging.

The narrow gate is the way, the truth, and the life. It is a recognition that we are God's creation and every single thing about our world and our lives is God's providence. All that is needed to follow the path through the narrow gate is laid out in the book of Matthew, Chapters 5-7, detailing the Sermon on the Mount. But the message can be summed up with two simple yet challenging laws:

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.

• Love your neighbor as yourself.

The Beatitudes from the Sermon flesh out what that might look like.

The discipline and humility necessary to live out a moral life are not encouraged in our secular culture. And this is the cause of intense and unnecessary suffering.