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While narrow, as compared to the wide road, its width is sufficient because
it is a singular pathway, perhaps a school of thought, or one’s individual
state of holiness. However, such a state is not singular because that road or
path may contain many as a collective mystical or holy body of people.
Love is a mystical reality, an internal spark that is spiritual in every sense.
Once acquired nothing in life is more valuable, because, our walk is
uniquely different, and the attributes of love flow freely from within. Such
an individual experience is of the highest quality and absolutely essential,
because such is a preferred way to express that mystical state in a loving
way. There is no other way. However, all who travel the narrow road will
eventually end up in the same place—the kingdom within, where the truth
abounds.
The entirety of the scriptural texts reflects this reality. They depict the
struggle within persons who walk the narrow road instead of the wide road.
A good example is written in the book of Esdras [Ezra], one of the books
in the “Apocrypha.” Although some proclaim it to be a non-Scriptural text,
I would ask that you judge for yourself. Esdras, like us, had to come within
to seek and ask questions for a deeper understanding; he recorded an angel
speaking to him. The words given reflect on a man affirming the journey of
life, and describing the narrow path upon which we must walk—how we
are to walk. The writings of Esdras have special insights and speak clearly to
us today. Consider that you personally have asked this: “I said, ‘Speak, my
lord.’ And he said to me, ‘There is a sea set in a wide expanse so that it is
deep and vast, but it has an entrance set in a narrow place, so that it is like a
river. If there are those who wish to reach the sea, to look at it or to
navigate it, how can they come to the broad part unless they pass through
the narrow part? Another example: There is a city built and set on a plain,
and it is full of all good things; but the entrance to it is narrow and set in a
precipitous place, so that there is fire on the right hand and deep water on
the left. There is only one path lying between them, that is, between the fire
and the water, so that only one person can walk on the path. If now the city
is given to someone as an inheritance, how will the heir receive the
inheritance unless by passing through the appointed danger?’”
“I said, ‘That is right, lord.’ He said to me, ‘So also is Israel’s portion. For I
made the world for their sake, and when Adam transgressed my statutes,
what had been made was judged.
And s o t he en t ranc e s o f t h i s wo r l d we r e
made nar r ow and s o r r owf u l and t o i l s ome ; t he y ar e f ew and e v i l , f u l l o f
dang e r s and i nvo l v ed i n g r ea t hardsh i ps .
But the entrances of the greater