Sermon Blog
Many Called, Few Chosen
May 4, 2024
Catholics pray an act of contrition during the Sacrament of Confession which states that the penitent is “heartily sorry” for having offended God … because God is “all good” and “deserving of all our love;” however, penitents also admit that they are sorry for their sins because of fear for “the loss of heaven and the pains of hell.” Each person who prays this prayer is admitting that hell is real, it is painful, and that the loss of heaven is a possibility. One who contemplates this cannot help but consider salvation and one’s own soul, remembering the many Biblical verses which warn that “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,” and we should “strive to enter in at the strait gate,” but especially the passage which states that “many are called but few are chosen.” What are we to make of this? St. John Henry Newman does a masterful job of explaining this difficult concept in his sermon entitled, “Many Called, Few Chosen.”
After recalling the places in the Bible that refer to this “remnant” of the “chosen,” Newman teaches that dangerous misconceptions may arise from improper understanding of this teaching: He states:
“Now, first . . . . because the elect are few, serious men have considered that this took place in consequence of some fixed decree of God. They have thought that they were few, because it was God’s will that they should not be many. Now it is doubtless a great mystery, why this man receives the truth and practises it, and that man does not. We do not know how it comes to pass; but surely we do not tend to solve it, by saying God has so decreed it.” On the contrary, continues Newman, “we are solemnly assured in Scripture that God ‘hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked;’ that He is ‘not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” [Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 2 Pet. iii. 9.]
This teaching regarding the few should not lead us to a mistaken notion of God because He is a most loving Father. Newman does not explain this difficult reference to the fact that few are chosen nor does he quote another passage of St. Paul in which the Apostle teaches that God desires all men to be saved (1 Tm 2:3-4). Newman wishes to point out that if some or many are not saved, it is man’s doing, not God’s will. In other words, the invitation of the gospel message is to all people. God’s offer is extended to everyone, and the call to faith in Christ is universal.
The second error comes, according to St. John Henry, from those who hold the idea of predestination, that one can know absolutely that he is one of the few, one of the chosen. This danger is great because it leads men to a sort of false sense of security. Men often use this pretext to indulge in sinful behavior, ignoring St. Paul’s warning of not using freedom to do evil.
The solution to this, teaches Newman, is to remember that St. Paul “speaks as if the Christian course were a race . . . [when he declared] ‘I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.’ . . .[Therefore even St. Paul was far] from security and self-satisfaction, though he, if anyone, would have had a right to feel easy about his state. And the exhortation he gives his brethren is, ‘So run, that ye may obtain.’”
The last danger which Newman recognizes is regarding those who misinterpret this Biblical text and become isolated and extreme in their opinions of what is right and wrong and what one must do to be saved. Because if “true Christians are few [this] leads men to isolate themselves in their own opinions, to withdraw from the multitude, to adopt new and extravagant views, and to be singular in their conduct, as if what the many held and did could not be right.” These people risk the danger of becoming judgmental, deciding for themselves who is or who isn’t saved. They often put forward their own standards of right and wrong.
So what are we to believe? How should we consider this notion of the few and the many and salvation? Newman responds that we must look to the saints who have gone before, whose outward way of life showed forth their inner desire to please God. They have been made our teachers and sure guides. They have withstood the ridicule of the false prophets of their times.
Though the invitation is open to all, not everyone responds to it in faith. Those who accept the call, embrace Christ, and live according to His teachings; they are the chosen ones. They are selected by their faith and obedience to God’s will, like the many saints of the Catholic Church. In the parable of the wedding feast, the guest without the proper garment symbolizes those who claim to accept the invitation but do not live a life in accordance with God’s commandments. The wedding garment represents the righteousness and holiness that should accompany true faith. We have teaching and the guidance of the one Holy Catholic Church, our Mother, so, “let us pray God to make [this faith] live in us; so that at the Last Day, when all veils are removed, we may be found among those who are inwardly what they seem outwardly.”
In this race to reach the goal, God often grants us his graces through the intercession of the saints. We should invoke often our favorite saints and our guardian angel. St. John Henry Newman would pray to his patron saint, St. Philip Neri, founder of the Oratory, and to his guardian angel. He would also ask the help of the Virgin Mary. For us the month of May provides us with a daily reminder of her motherly help, now and at the hour of our death.
