When the temple was in Jerusalem, Jews would make a trip to Jerusalem every single year. Once the temple was destroyed, that stopped happening; they would have their local synagogue to go to. But since then, it’s been a tradition that Jewish people, once in their lifetime, now go to Israel to see the temple.
There were a few Jewish men, and the first Jewish man sent his son to Israel. It was the first time his son went to Israel and when he came back, he told his father that he had converted, that he had become Catholic. So, his father was pretty upset by this. And so, the second father sent his son to Israel to make his once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage, and he came back and said, “Dad, I have to tell you, I went there, and I have become Catholic.” And the father was upset and now this other son had become Catholic. So, the third father sent his son to Israel. When he came back from Israel, of course, he told his father, “I don’t know what to say but I’ve become Catholic.” So, all three of them are really disappointed and they decided that they would pray and they would ask the Lord, ‘how could he let this happen?’ And so, they began praying and asking God why their sons became Catholic and God spoke to them. And he said, “You aren’t going to believe this, but I sent my son to Israel…(laughter). You can explain that to some people who didn’t get it; the choir is slow.
Often times we are asked by our Protestant brothers and sisters, “Are you saved?” Has anyone ever been asked that before? Raise your hand if you know how to respond to that. A couple of you do. Some of us might not know how to respond to that right? First time that happened to me I was in the seminary and I was at a wedding for my cousin and there was a Protestant minister there and he asked if I was saved. Now I just entered the seminary and I hadn’t learned too much about it yet and he asked me if I was saved and I said, “I don’t know, I hope that God would save me.” And he goes, ‘You’re saved, just believe that.” And I said OK, and then I started to think about that throughout my life, and I know people will probably ask you that same question, and you are not sure how to answer it.
Well, the answer is Yes, we are saved because we hear this in the gospel today, just like the joke I was telling before, “God sent his only son into the world so that he might save us,” and that we might experience salvation. Salvation for us has already happened. When Jesus suffered, died and rose from the dead, we have been saved. Now the part that we struggle with our Protestant brothers and sisters is that we are participants in that salvation. And what that means is that we can actually reject the gift of salvation; we can kind of turn God down from that gift of salvation. So, the answer, if you want the quick answer if somebody asked you if you are saved, you could answer, “I am saved in Hope.” We hear in the second reading that we are saved in Hope. Pope Benedict wrote a beautiful document, an Encyclical Letter entitled Spe Salve. The name of that document came from the letter of Saint James and is that, “We are saved in Hope.”
I want to talk about what that means. Martin Luther said that we are saved by Faith alone. That was his big thing and that was one of the rifts that was caused in our church, that we are saved by Faith alone. Now the interesting thing is that nowhere in scripture does it say that. It says we are saved by Faith and it also says Faith and Works save us, but nowhere does it say that we are saved by Faith alone. What’s interesting is that Martin Luther was so a scripturalist, and so he believed whatever is in scripture is exactly how you have to believe, and however it is written is how you believe it, but faith alone was never written anywhere in scripture. So, we hear this in the second reading. It talks about what this means. St. Paul says, “Brothers and Sisters, God who is rich in mercy because he had a great love for us even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.”
So, salvation happens, even when we are dead in our transgressions; he brings us to life in Christ. And then he says, “By Grace you have been saved.” Notice that? By Grace you have been saved. Well, what is Grace? Grace comes from the Latin word for gift, that salvation is a gift we receive from God. And so, the division there is between the Catholic and the Protestant faith, I don’t think there is actually a division, because I think we mean the same thing. They’re saying there’s nothing that we can do that can earn our salvation. We believe that too then, our salvation is a gift that we receive from God. So, he goes on to say, “By grace, you have been saved, raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” So, we are saved by Grace.
Well, what is Grace? Grace is the free gift of God. So, when you hear saved by faith alone, we can say we are saved by faith, it’s a gift that we are given by God. But we do believe that we participate in what I said and that’s why Catholics will often say we are saved by Faith and Works, we are not only saved by the grace that God gives us, but that we participate in some way with the works. So, here’s the interesting thing, it continues on, so it says, “For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is a gift from God;” So we would agree right there, it’s nothing that we do, it’s not from us it’s a gift from God, and this is the line that they specifically focus on. “It’s not from works so that no one may boast.” So, our salvation is not simply something that we do. But then it continues on: “For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”
So even this reading, which is taken from it, says that we are not only saved by our Faith but also created to do the good Works of God. Then, we hear in the Gospel today talks about faith and works even more. Jesus said, “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness…because their works were evil, for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light so that his works might be exposed.”
So, do you think our work is important after hearing this? Ok thank you, our works are important. And then it says, ”Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be seen as done in God.” So, it is not just Faith alone that we are saved, it is Faith displayed in the Works that we do. It is faith that shows that the faith that we believe impacts our lives and that the salvation that we desire is worked out by God with us. We are participants. We are saved only by everything that comes from him and we call that Grace. So, if they ask you if you are saved by faith alone, you can say I’m saved by grace alone. But grace is a working out of faith which is a gift, and good works which is a gift. And so, we are saved by faith and good works but all of that is grace. I hope I have all of you very confused right now.
But I think it important that we know this and we know how to answer because probably you’ll be put on the spot at some point in your life. If you haven’t already, you will be so the next time they ask are you saved, first of all you can say Yes! I’m saved in Hope. Second, are you saved by Faith alone? The answer is I am saved by Grace alone, which is faith and good works.
It’s good that we know our Faith, and it’s important when we are asked these questions, we can actually give a good answer back and that we actually understand what they mean when they are asking the question, what we understand when we are asking the question and what we truly believe. Our Faith is important to us. We are going to profess the Faith in a few moments here together. It’s so important that we know our Faith, so when our Faith is challenged, look into that, do some homework. Ask me. Ask google. Find out something more about our Faith so that we can truly live it, believe it and be able to teach it to others.
