Salvation - A Catholic Perspective

There's More to It

Last night, My Dear Wife and I were doing our evening scriptural meditation, and the following verses from Acts taken from the daily mass readings were used to open the article written by Mitch Finley, a well known Catholic writer.

Acts 16:30-31,33

Then he [the jailer] brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved." . . . He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once.

Finley then wrote:

Ask a fundamentalist Christian what you must do to be "saved", and he or she will say that you must "accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior."  That notion can be traced directly to New Testament passages such as the one quoted above.  From a Catholic perspective, however, the fundamentalist stops reading too soon.  Notice that the jailer didn't reply, "Okay, I believe in the Lord Jesus."  Nope.  His belief showed itself first in his active compassion for Paul and Silas; he welcomed them into his home and "bathed their wounds."   That's his first response; the second is to be baptized.  In other words, an authentic adult faith in Christ is inseparable from active charity and participation in the sacramental life of the faith community.

Lord Jesus, help my faith in you to be a mature adult faith that lives in the Church.

I was reading a posting by one of my favourite Catholic priest bloggers the other day about the sexual abuse situation, and there a fundamentalist leaning, ex-Catholic Christian was suggesting in a comment, that priests should leave the Catholic Church, go get saved and join another denomination.

I have engaged him previously, as he insisted that he knew a great deal about the Catholic Church, but I found it difficult to get past the rhetoric.  For any person interested in the hereafter, having a faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour is important.  But relying on only a profession of faith to ensure salvation makes life pretty easy, and misses the essence of Jesus' teachings.

If all we had to do was profess our belief in the Lord Jesus, as in the reading above, then what do we do about "Love one another as I have loved you."  It seems that the jailer got that teaching really early on.  But our fundamentalist brethren skip over that or simplify it to me telling you (as an act of love, mind you), since I now know Jesus, what you need, and brow beating you until you see it my way, and follow me to Him.  

Not probably going to happen, and the good news is that it also does not have to happen (at least like that).  First off, how does an individual, me or my fundamentalist buddy, have the ability to judge the state of your soul?  Didn't Jesus say: "Judge not lest you be judged."  To me that means that no matter the state of my soul, I have no authority to judge your soul and its state. 

So, my preference is to share my faith in Him who died to save us, here in my blog, or in person, if you wish.  If you don't wish to hear about my faith, either skip my blog, since it's there, or don't ask me about it when we meet.  I won't push my faith on you, since it is mine, and my unique relationship to Jesus.

But, what you can't stop me doing is praying for you, dear reader. And here is the prayer that I will be saying, just so there's no misunderstanding on my intentions.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for the readers of this blog, and those I meet or hear of. (10X)
Sacred Heart of Jesus, fill me with your blood.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for the readers of this blog, and those I meet or hear of. (10X)
Sacred Heart of Jesus, fill me with your blood.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for the readers of this blog, and those I meet or hear of. (10X)
Sacred Heart of Jesus, fill me with your blood.