Is it hard to get into heaven? Jesus seems to say it is when he warns, “Try to come in through the narrow door.” His warning is somewhat confusing since he also says that “People will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and will take their place at the feast in the Kingdom of God.” The prophecy from Isaiah today says much the same thing. In other words, there will be a lot of people for the kingdom. How are all of them going to make it through the narrow door? I think of what happens on a freeway (or expressway) when there is a bad accident. The police close off three lanes; only a single lane is open which is like the narrow door. All the traffic slows down and at times comes to a complete stop because of the bottleneck. As I think of the narrow door Jesus referred to, I see people all bunched up like cars on the freeway, moving very slowly, trying to squeeze through the one open lane. Drivers are upset. They are fussing and fuming and making obscene gestures at each other. Cars and tempers are overheating. The bottleneck is a pain in the neck. Sin is like the accident on the freeway which causes all the trouble! This is not an inviting scene, this image of what it means to get to heaven. But when I think more clearly about the image of the narrow door, I realize that actually only one person has to get through the door. That person is Jesus. And through the door to heaven he has passed in the paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection. We do not have to force our way through the narrow door. All we need do is make sure we are united with Jesus. Many bodies do not have to get through the door, only one, and that is the body of Christ, the mystical body of Christ, the Church. And yet with it all, the indispensable requirement is that we be faith people, that we remain united with Christ in his mystical body, the Church. That is the way to make sure that we will make it past all the fuss and bother of this world into the eternal kingdom of heaven.