By Bob Sullivan
In my last column, I provided some perspective to the Catholic teaching on baptism, compared to the non-Catholic belief that baptism is nothing more than an empty ritual or a public declaration that a person has been “saved.”
Another common misunderstanding between non-Catholic Christians and Catholics is the effect that works have on our salvation. In other words, we are saved by our baptism, but do we earn eternal salvation, or do we “keep” our salvation by performing good works throughout our life? This is what many non-Catholics think the Catholic Church teaches. They therefore sometimes claim that Catholicism is a works-based faith.
The belief that you can earn your salvation or work your way to Heaven is an old heresy called Pelagianism. It was the Catholic Church who declared Pelagianism a heresy 16 centuries ago. Therefore, it is strange to hear non-Catholics claim that the Catholic Church now teaches Pelagianism. They don’t call it Pelagianism, and many non-Catholic critics of the Church don’t even know what Pelagianism is, but they make the allegation, nonetheless.
Undoubtedly, some people still think they can “get to Heaven” by performing good deeds. After all, a person certainly can work his or her way to Hell with bad deeds, or by doing nothing at all once they receive God’s grace. However, these two scenarios are not equal alternatives. God’s grace, and our cooperation or rejection of that grace is the key.
So how do good works fit into Catholicism and the practice of the Catholic faith? St. Paul lays it out quite clearly in Titus 3:4-7:
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
In Philippians 2:12, St. Paul tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. In other words, St. Paul teaches that we are saved by our baptism, just as St. Peter teaches in 1 Peter 3:21, but that our eternal salvation is not permanently established with our baptism. Our behavior after that time is part of our life as Christians and has an impact on our eternal salvation.
Therefore, instead of crediting our salvation to our works, or saying that we keep our salvation by performing good works, the Church teaches that our good works are because of the grace we receive in baptism, and after that, because of the grace we receive in the other sacraments and prayer.
In paragraph 2001 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it states:
“The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it. Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing."
In paragraph 1999 it states that grace is the “source of the work of sanctification.”
As Catholics, we do not earn or keep our salvation by doing good works. We are not Pelagians. Catholicism is not a works-based approach to salvation. Anyone who claims otherwise is unwittingly admitting that they do not know what the Church actually teaches.
If your inspiration for good deeds is secular, political, social, or anything other than the glory of God, you are spinning your wheels. No matter how many times you work at the soup kitchen, the homeless shelter, the recycling center, and no matter how many times you pray outside the abortion facility, your chances of eternal salvation are no better than the kind atheist. According to Scripture and the Catholic Church, unless you are doing good deeds by the grace of God, they are useless. Jesus makes this blatantly clear in John 15:5-6:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” (Emphasis added)
There has been an enormous amount of ink spilled in an effort to set forth an erroneous understanding of the Catholic teaching on good works and salvation. It is all in vain. Catholicism clearly teaches that we are saved by faith working through love (Gal 5:6), and it must all come from the initial grace of baptism and the graces of continued cooperation with the graces we receive in the sacraments and prayer.
In my next column, we’ll dive into what the word justification means, since it is a key word in the Catholic teaching on salvation, and it is used and understood in a slightly different way by some non-Catholics.
