chesterton article

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.
It has been found difficult and left untried."
-- G.K. Chesterton

This quote by the famous Gilbert Keith Chesterton sums up two-thousand years of Christian thought and philosophy. It also sums up a lot of what Christ said when he was actively preaching God's Good News upon the earth.

Jesus said Many times that the road was narrow and hard to travel upon, and so is the yolk of our lives, as Matthew 6: 28-30 says:

28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Jesus offers to take our heartache and pain and all of the problems the world dumps upon us and help us turn that into something that is redemptive- that is helping our faith and our salvation by helping draw us closer to Christ through the suffering. But, in all of this, Christ never says its going to be EASY. He says that he will take our sufferings and unite them to himself, but he also say in Matthew 7:13-14:

" Enter in at the straight gate: For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there will be many that follow that path: Because straight is the gate and narrow is the path that leads to eternal life, and there will be few that find it."

Narrow is the way... What does this mean? Does it mean that God doesn't want to have many with him? No. Our Heavenly Father would like nothing more than to have everyone join him and the saints in Heaven. The problem: our human sin. We fall off someplace along the way and choose to dishonor and shame our Lord by our actions. He knows there is no possible way for us to be spotless, but He also knows that there is a lot more most of us can do to try and stay closer to him, namely following His Word and listening to His voice.

Part of the way we can do this is to pray and tell Our Lord Jesus that we are sorry for the times we have sinned against him and that we are sorry for all of the pain we caused him, because every sin we commit was another lash he received or another thorn that pierced his skull or another nail pounding into his flesh.

Jesus asks us every day to come and accept him into our hearts, we just choose to ignore the knocking. He clearly said in Revelations 3:20:

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: and if any... hear my voice, and will open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

Notice this picture- it does not have a handle on Christ's side of the door. This is a representation of the door to our hearts. Christ cannot enter unless we allow him in. Christ is asking us to allow him into our hearts, to take away the burdens that get us down, to accept him as our Lord and Savior, so as to be able to handle that narrow road. To be able to do this, we must follow Him to the truth that has been laid out both in the Bible and through his apostles. GK Chesterton also said:

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around."

What exactly does this say? Chesterton is saying that we owe it to those who came before us, namely, the apostles, to follow what they were taught, from Christ and those who knew Christ's wishes first hand. Tradition, with a capital T means that which was handed down from Christ. The Catholic Church is full of Tradition, and the apostles told us to 'keep holding fast to that which was handed down, both written and unwritten.'

Christ started his church to bring forgiveness and live to as many as he could. What's holding us back? Sin. And all sin is, is saying 'no' to our God; the God who has given nothing but love to us. Why do we sin? its human nature. Why shouldn't we? because sainthood is God's nature. Mother Angelica, founder of the Eternal Word Catholic Television Network (EWTN) said,

Well? What are you waiting for? Don't miss the opportunity! Give your life to the loving God who has nothing but love for you, no matter the faults. He's waiting right now for you to come and ask him for love, for you to open the door to your heart that he has been knocking upon. He's waiting. Don't miss the opportunity. Pray with me now:

I come to you now and ask you to take away all the pain and all the burdens I have allowed myself to amass.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN JESUS YOUR HEART, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR CLOSEST PRIEST AND ASK HIM TO HELP YOU GET THE FORGIVENESS AND THE KNOWLEDGE JESUS HAS BESTOWED UPON HIS PRIESTS- IN THE GIFT AND SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION!