Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen

Parable of the wedding feast — The narrow gate — It is not enough to say “Lord, Lord” — Responsibility of those who received more knowledge — Instructions from the Spirits: developing what we received and recognizing faith by works.

Parable of the wedding feast

1. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a feast prepared by a king for his son's wedding. The first guests refuse the invitation and prefer to take care of their own interests.

In the parable, some guests even attack and kill the messengers. The king reacts and then sends his servants to invite everyone they find along the roads.

The hall becomes full, but the story also presents a guest without suitable clothing for the feast. The conclusion is the well-known phrase: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:1-14)

2. Kardec reminds us that parables use images to convey an idea. Therefore, they should not be read as literal descriptions of events that would necessarily happen in that way.

In the interpretation presented by the work, the feast represents spiritual happiness and the invitation represents the call to live according to moral laws.

Kardec associates the first guests with the Jewish religious context in which the prophets and Jesus appeared. This is a nineteenth-century historical and theological interpretation, not a justification for collectively blaming the Jewish people.

The guests occupied with property and business represent people so absorbed in material interests that they place moral and spiritual development in the background.

The original text comments on the history of monotheism based on the knowledge available in Kardec's time. Today, the history of religions is studied in a broader and more complex way. For reading this work, the important point is to understand the context Kardec used to build his interpretation.

According to Kardec's reading, knowing a religious tradition is not enough when moral practice is replaced only by ceremonies and outward appearances.

The work relates the coming of Jesus to a call to place moral law once again at the center of religious life. Its historical formulation reflects Kardec's Christian view and should be understood within that context.

The text itself states that it would be unjust to hold an entire people responsible for events connected with Jesus' death. Historical responsibility should not be turned into collective accusation against Jews or any other group.

In the continuation of the parable, the invitation is opened to everyone. For Kardec, however, accepting the invitation or using the name Christian is not enough: the “clothing for the feast” symbolizes purity of intention and real practice of the moral law.

The work summarizes this law in charity. Thus, “many called and few chosen” means that many people may know the teaching, but their transformation depends on putting it into practice.

The narrow gate

3. Jesus uses the image of a narrow gate to teach that the path of good requires effort and conscious choices, while harmful paths may seem easier. (Matthew 7:13-14)

4. When asked how many would be saved, Jesus replies by inviting each person to strive to enter through the “narrow gate.” The image reinforces that outward proximity to a religion does not replace the practice of good.

The passage also says that people coming from different places will participate in the Kingdom of God and concludes that some of the last will be first and some of the first will be last. (Luke 13:23-30)

5. Kardec interprets the narrow gate as the effort needed to overcome selfish tendencies and develop good. The difficulty is not in belonging to a specific group, but in transforming one's own conduct.

The work relates this image to its view of Earth as a place of moral learning. At the same time, it rejects the idea that most of humanity is condemned forever, because that would be incompatible with God's justice and goodness.

Kardec questions the idea of a single existence followed by an eternal and final destiny. For him, the differences and difficulties of life need to be analyzed within a longer spiritual process.

The answer proposed by the Doctrine is the continuity of the soul, reincarnation, and the existence of different inhabited worlds. This is a Spiritist doctrinal statement presented here as part of the work's view.

Those who say: Lord! Lord!

6. Jesus states that it is not enough to call him “Lord.” What matters is doing God's will and living consistently with the teaching. (Matthew 7:21-23)

7. Whoever hears the teachings and practices them is compared to someone who builds a house on rock: when storms come, it remains standing. Hearing without practicing is like building on sand. (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49)

8. The passage reinforces the importance of practicing and teaching the commandments, not merely knowing them. (Matthew 5:19)

9. Kardec asks what good it does to call Jesus Master if his teachings do not appear in our actions. External religious practices do not compensate for pride, selfishness, greed, or lack of respect for one's neighbor.

Prayer can be important, but the work insists that words without inner transformation are insufficient. Faith needs to reach the heart and conduct.

The text condemns the inconsistency of using religion while practicing injustice, violence, exploitation, slander, or hatred. Making other people suffer in the name of faith contradicts the message of love one claims to follow.

It would not be the number of words, gestures, or ceremonies that brings someone closer to God, but the sincere practice of love and charity.

Kardec extends the comparison of the house on rock to society: institutions would be stronger when based on justice, respect, and the common good, and more fragile when they opposed these principles.

Much will be required of those who were given much

10. Jesus teaches that responsibility increases with knowledge and opportunities: “to whom much was given, much will be required.” The original passage uses the historical image of punishments applied to servants; here we preserve its moral principle, not the violence of the image. (Luke 12:47-48)

11. In another passage, Jesus uses “seeing” and “blindness” as metaphors for awareness and responsibility. This is not an association of visual disability with moral failure. (John 9:39-41)

12. Kardec applies the principle of responsibility to Spiritist teachings: knowing moral guidance increases the responsibility to try to put it into practice.

The work states that the teachings of the Spirits would seek to present moral principles in different ways and make them accessible to people with different levels of education and different beliefs.

If knowledge does not make someone less selfish, less proud, and more willing to help, mere intellectual admiration for the teaching would not have fulfilled its moral purpose.

Kardec applies this principle to mediums as well: receiving or transmitting a good message does not place anyone above others. The first use of advice should be to examine one's own conduct before pointing out the faults of others.

The greater the understanding, the greater the responsibility to act according to it. It is in this sense that the work repeats that much will be required from those who received much.

For the sincere Spiritist, therefore, the first question before a piece of advice should be: “What in this applies to me and to what I need to improve?”

Instructions from the Spirits

It will be given to the one who has

13. When explaining why he spoke in parables, Jesus says that some people hear without understanding. The passage uses the phrase “to the one who has, more will be given; from the one who does not have, even what they have will be taken away.” (Matthew 13:10-14)

Matthew 13:10-14

14. Another passage presents a similar idea: we should pay attention to what we hear and how we use what we receive. (Mark 4:24-25)

A friendly Spirit - Bordeaux, 1862

15. The instruction interprets the phrase figuratively. Whoever cultivates a teaching and strives to practice it develops new abilities; whoever abandons what they received fails to use its potential.

According to the message, it is not God arbitrarily taking good away from someone. The image seeks to speak about the responsibility to care for, develop, and use what we receive.

The message compares this to an inherited field: if no one cultivates it, it stops producing. It is not the person who gave the field who destroyed the harvest; care was lacking to develop it.

The proposal is not to live in guilt, but to recognize choices, correct what is possible, and return to action with hope and responsibility.

Cultivating the field symbolizes personal effort: choosing good seeds, working with perseverance, and nourishing attitudes of love and charity.

In summary: care for your own heart, remove habits that produce suffering, and develop what can bear good fruit.

A Christian is recognized by their works

Simeon - Bordeaux, 1863

16. The message returns to Jesus' phrase: it is not enough to say “Lord, Lord.” It states that a religious identity is recognized mainly by works and by the way people are treated, not only by the name someone uses to define their faith.

Using the image of the tree and its fruit, the message asks what concrete results a religion produces: hope, faith, love, care, and transformation would be the expected fruits.

The text criticizes situations in which human interests distort a religious message and it stops producing these fruits. The criticism is directed at inconsistency between teaching and practice.

The message invites people to recover the essential meaning of Christianity, represented by the tree of life, instead of allowing outward forms to hide its fruits.

These fruits should not be accumulated by one group. The image is of a tree whose shade and food are available to everyone who needs them.

The invitation is to welcome tired people, share support, and avoid paths that increase divisions or suffering.

The instruction ends by repeating the central message: faith is demonstrated by those who seek to do God's will and produce good fruit. The final invitation is to believe, act, and pray.