As we pursue the journey of Advent, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, John the Baptist’s call to conversion resounds in our communities. It is a pressing invitation to open our hearts and welcome the Son of God who comes into our midst to make the divine judgment manifest.
The Father, writes the evangelist John, judges no one, but rather has entrusted the power to judge to the Son of Man (cf. John 5:22, 27). And it is today, in the present, that our future destiny is at stake; it is the concrete way we conduct ourselves in this life that decides our eternal fate. At the sunset of our days on earth, at the moment of death, we will be evaluated according to whether or not we resemble the Child who is about to be born in the lowly cave in Bethlehem, since he is the criterion by which God measures humanity.
The heavenly Father, who in the birth of his only-begotten Son manifests his merciful love to us, calls us to follow in his footsteps, making our existence, as he did, a gift of love. And the fruits of love are the “good fruits of conversion” to which John the Baptist refers, when he directs his pointed words at the Pharisees and Sadducees who were in the crowds at Christ’s baptism.
The Pope: il Papa. But probably not “Pop.”
This message contains several points in which I differ with Rome. Benedict says that the way we conduct ourselves in this life is what determines our fate. He then goes on to say that at the moment of death, we will be evaluated according to whether or not we resemble the Child who is about to be born… On the latter point I agree, but not on the former. We are saved by grace through faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, not as a result of works (see Ephesians 2:8-9 and other like passages). We resemble Christ only because His righteousness is imputed onto us; nothing we do on our own can ever achieve this. And later in the message, Benedict imputes onto Mary the function of the Holy Spirit; that which leads to our conversion. This is a prime example of why, if Anglicanism were to implode or I find myself in an area without a good Anglican Parish, I would not swim the Tiber but would look for an alternative in Protestantism.
Physician,
I would encourage you to read the catechism regarding works vs faith, as well as just about any works by the Cardinal Ratzinger. The Catholic poistion is well supported by Scripture, once you understand, anyway. It took me a while to get it, but once I did, it became clear that my previous understanding of what the Church teaches was wrong, not the teaching of the Church.
Maybe it’s just the way my mind works, but I have a hard time wrapping my thoughts around any definition of exactly how I am or will be saved. On the one hand, if good works alone did it, we wouldn’t need Jesus, because the Law would be enough; on the other, the “once saved always saved” principle seems very dangerous, leading people to think that how they conduct themselves after they’re “saved” doesn’t affect their destinations at all. I realize theologians have to gnaw on this to rule out really bad interpretations, but I instinctively feel that the precise functioning of God’s plan of salvation is not within our understanding. So when the Pope says God will look at how I conducted myself, I think he’s right, but that’s not the whole story. Ambiguity and mystery bother some people, though.
Katherine,
From the Catholic standpoint we are saved by grace, which functions from the foundations of the world to call us to see His face, in our heritage, our baptisms, our upbringing, our personal encounters with Christ (sometimes in a dramatic “conversion”), and all the routines of living with God, through which we progress in holiness and closeness to Him we seek. How we behave matters, and we always have the choice to jump ship. In fact, we do “jump ship” from time to time, at least in little ways, and can always – by grace – make a good confession. For some, that grace comes home at the end of life, when we see the lies we have lived, and reconcile with the Father. Then we get a good cleaning up in Purgatory (I don’t know how Protestants manage without that wonderful doctrine!) that finishes preparing us to stand before God. And that [i]is[/i] salvation, won for us by Christ on the Cross, effected in us by the grace of the Spirit who engenders faith and leads us to a life of serving our Beloved.
The Catholic stands with James and tells us not to separate “faith” from “works”.
Physician, out of curiosity, do you think salvation means that we escape judgment altogether? I don’t think that’s so, but I guess I wouldn’t complain if it were true.
Dear Don R, Trooper and all, Thanks for your responses. I am sorry that it took so long to respond; was in clinic all day. In terms of the question raised by Don R, I refer you to 2 Corinthians 5:21: For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Yes, judgment had to occur because God is just. We are all sinners, noone better than the other. The judgment has already been made, and the price has been paid at Calvary, once for all time. We are each convicted of our crimes at the time of our conversion, and once we are converted, we are clothed in God’s righteousness, ie: counted as righteous by God. As Scripture says elsewhere (I can’t remember exactly now where, but it was in the Sunday lectionary a few weeks ago and Frank Limehouse preached brilliantly on it) “The Lord is our righteousness.” There is never any hope that we could do it on our own. There is no need of a second judgment, and no need of a purgatory to cleanse us. Of course, this is not a license to antinomianism, since after we are genuinely converted, we hate the fact that we sin, we confess our sins, and ask God to give us the grace to sin no more. If you want to read a more elegant discussion of this, I commend to you the Advent website http://www.adventbirmingham.org where you will find Frank’s recent sermon.
How does one know that one is converted?
You know that you are converted when you see yourself as a sinner without hope of self-redemption, and believe that you are redeemed by the substitutionary atonement of Christ at Calvary. If one is worried about his conversion, he probably need not be. The reference to “The Lord is our righteousness” is Jeremiah 23:6.
One more thing which is so important: if yu believe that Jesus rose from the dead, you are converted.
Follow up those Scripture passages above with James 2:26 and you’ve got it, although I am extremely loathe to separate out individual verses to prove points of doctrine.
Heck, even the devil quotes individual Scripture verses to Jesus in the Gospel.
Dear Cannon Law, Yes, justifying faith will lead to good works; works not done to justify one’s self (these types of works are indeed wicked), but to glorify God.
Agreed, physician. God bless!