“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:”
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. The two-ways teaching that closes the Sermon: the broad way is easy and widely traveled; the narrow way requires more effort and has fewer travelers. Deuteronomy 30:19 offers the two ways of life and death; Jeremiah 21:8 presents the way of life and the way of death to Jerusalem. Jesus does not locate the narrow gate in a particular religious institution or tradition but in himself (John 14:6 — I am the way). The many who travel the broad way are not all self-consciously evil; they are simply not paying attention to the direction they are traveling. The easy path is easy precisely because it requires no transformation.
Church Fathers on Matthew 7:13
The Lord had warned us above to have a heart single and pure with which to seek God; but as this belongs to but few, He begins to speak of finding out wisdom. For the searching out and contemplation whereof there has been formed through all the foregoing such an eye as may discern the narrow way and strait gate; whence He adds, 'Enter ye in at the strait gate.'
Though it be hard to do to another what you would have done to yourself; yet so must we do, that we may enter the strait gate.
Otherwise; This third precept again is connected with the right method of fasting, and the order of discourse will be this; 'But thou when thou fastest anoint thy head;' and after comes, 'Enter ye in at the strait gate.'
Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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