Is this comment true?

[ATeutonicKnight]

I was reading some threads and I found this comment extremely wrong and disheartening:

“A person is saved by dying and being permitted to enter heaven (or purgatory) by God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Church has never proclaimed an absolute method of getting to this point, especially one in less than ten words. The Church has always taught salvation is very difficult and few are actually saved. It takes a life of acceptance of and cooperation with the Holy Trinity and the Grace of God to save a soul. We are never saved while on this earth.”

I find the part of the comment that is highlighted extremely wrong on many accounts. The way I read this post it makes me want to completely give up because it almost sends the message that there is no hope. In the theological books I’ve read they always say that it is hard, but not impossible, and it is actually pretty easy to get into heaven, as long as you obey the Church, pray to and trust God, receive the sacraments, and overall just stay a good person. This comment sends me the message that even if you do these things only a select few get into Heaven, almost as if it’s a lottery, and despite how good you’ve been, only the lucky numbers are winners. But I still want to know: Is this post accurate?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi Tuet,

I agree; that statement sounds rather foreboding. Left to ourselves, no one would make it. But we are not left to ourselves. The Gospel is full of hope. After all, it’s the Good News that God loved us enough to join us in our humanity and to suffer and die for us. Certainly, His intention was not to stifle the result of His efforts. In Jn. 6:40 Jesus says: “For it is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Church has always taught that no one but God knows how many are saved. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states (#1058): “If it is true that no one can save himself, it is also true that God ‘desires all men to be saved’ (1Tim 2:4), and that for him ‘all things are possible’ (Mt 19:26).

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.