As eye-opening as my spiritual journey has been over the years, spending time immersed in other traditions, either merely intellectually or even religiously, one drawback has been that it's been difficult to shed some non-Catholic notions that have become ingrained in me over the years. One of the influences that I'm having to regularly put aside is that of evangelical Protestant Christianity.
As a Catholic Christian, I do not share evangelical Christians' understanding of salvation. I'm not just talking about the fact that Catholics often get scolded for including works along with faith as necessary for salvation. (James 2:14-17: "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.")
Both our current Pope Francis, and his predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict, have gone on record as stating that not only do we as Catholics believe that one does not need to be a Catholic to be saved, but that even theists of other religious traditions and atheists can be saved... if they do good works. So it seems that works even without faith can save?! This doesn't seem to be found in the Bible, but luckily I am Catholic, so I don't need to be my own Pope and interpret Scriptures for myself. Instead, I have the magisterium of the Church, with highly learned Scripture scholars who enlighten me. What this means that the authority for my faith comes from both the Bible and the Tradition (note the capital "t") of the Church.
At any rate, the questions that is begging to be asked if we accept that 1) Catholic Christianity does hold the fullness of truth as much as that is possible this side of heaven, yet 2) one does not need to be Catholic or even Christian or even a theist in order to be saved and go to heaven after death, then.... what is the point of adhering to Catholicism/Christianity/faith of any kind?
This question is already found in the New Testament, where it is worded like this: "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope." (1 Peter 3:15). What's different about me as a Christian than when I was not a believer? Why am I choosing to follow Jesus, if I believe that I could still get into heaven without following Him?
Well, for starters, following Jesus doesn't mean belonging to a specific organized religion. I agree with what Mahatma Ghandi once said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Ouch. I had read that he considered converting to Christianity but ultimately decided against it because of what he says in the above quote. Following Christ is about a lifestyle, virtues, morals, ethics, standards of holiness, not about a label or membership in a place of worship. Therefore, there are lots of people who truly follow the example of Jesus - knowingly or not - and therefore fulfill the works part of salvation. As for the faith... we believe God Almighty is beyond the limits of time and space, right? So in the moment of death, something we think of as a split-second event, God actually has plenty of "time" to confront the dying soul and offer - for the first time or yet again - the grace of faith.
That's another reason that the recent popes' statements resonate with me. After my daughter was born, extended postpartum anxiety and depression lead to my loss of faith. For over two years I actively tried to regain my faith. I continued to attend church, read, and pray. I finally attended a spiritual retreat as a last ditch effort to get my faith back. This slowly started me back towards God again, but I could not yet say that I believed. And then, one day, right before I found out I was pregnant with my son, I suddenly believed again. I felt it. I felt at home at church again. I could again sense God's presence. It was not through anything that I did. The return of my faith was God's gift to me - grace. So if I couldn't force myself to believe, how can God who made me, hold it against me? Faith is a gift from God, not something you can just decide to have. Therefore, it does not make sense to say that faith in Jesus Christ is our ticket to heaven, because this presumes that we can simply make up our minds to believe something, when in fact we cannot.
The other point is that following Jesus is not merely about "getting into heaven" but about preparing ourselves - and by extension others who may see our lives and be inspired by them - to be acceptable to stand in God's presence. Heaven is not some exclusive country club that only the select few can "get into". Heaven is God's abode, it's the merging of our selves with Godself, it's standing face to face with our Creator. Indeed, none of us are holy enough to merit such an encounter, much less an eternity in the afterlife with God. For this reason I believe that Jesus's sacrifice on the cross was "the key" to our salvation.
Figuratively, I explain to my preschooler that Jesus came into the world to find the key to unlock heaven, so that after His resurrection, He was able to do just that, and now, precisely thanks to Him, we are eligible to even dream of going to heaven after we die. Before Jesus, heaven was simply off-limits.
I mentioned that faith is a grace from God. Faith is a virtue, so all of the virtues are gifts from God. Therefore, none of our works are our own, and therefore we have no reason to boast. Indeed, any good deed we do is made possibly by God first putting that ability, opportunity, and inspiration into us in the first place. So we do not "earn" our way to heaven because we do nothing outside of God's grace. This is why doing good works is not at all contrary to the fact that Jesus died for my sins. My good works are further graces from God that help me lead a happy life and prepare me for eternity with God.
One final note on good works. I recently read an excellent book, "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus" by Nabeel Quereshi. In it, I learned that the Muslim understanding of what leads souls to heaven is a balancing scale of sorts that compares one's good deeds with one's bad deeds, and that so long as the good deeds outweigh the bad, the person is granted access to heaven. I disagree wholeheartedly with this, because this would mean heaven is simply a place where mediocre people mingle. I do not see how Almighty God would allow into His holy presence people who just barely did more good than bad. So that is not the view of good works that I am talking about here. Again, our good works are merely us putting ourselves at the disposal of the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us. They are not evidence of our own intrinsic goodness.
Now, to finally answer the question posed at the start of this reflection. What is the reason for my hope? Why am I a practicing Catholic/believing Christian? Because I have experienced life without faith, and it was dreary. I have lived without hope and it was literally depressing. There was no meaning in my life when I couldn't get a firm grasp on God's love for me. With faith - and by that I mean, with the belief that God loves me unconditionally, to the point of incarnating and dying on the cross so that my sins could be removed from my soul and my seat at the "supper of the lamb" could be secured - my life has meaning.
So I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ because it gives my life meaning. Furthermore, Catholic understanding and practice of Christianity gives me great joy. It is difficult at times, to be sure. But to know that I am living for something greater than myself is incredibly fulfilling. There is no greater peace than to know I am working towards the best version of myself thanks to the instructions available to me through Christ's holy church.
In other words, I am Catholic not because I believe it will guarantee me entry into heaven. I am Catholic because it makes this life better, and because it is preparing me for that eventuality of spending eternity with my Lord.
Perhaps this is why Jesus said, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). God's kingdom isn't in some far-off land in the distant future! God is ever-present, and I can begin to partake in it here and now! My Catholic faith is what helps me to learn how to do that. How to love God, how to follow Jesus, how to do God's will. Getting into heaven is only a small fraction of what it means to be saved. To be saved from our sins is to start living for God right away. To die to self, to detach from superficial trappings of the material world, and to see beyond the mundane.
Being a Catholic Christian gives me great joy and peace! I'm thrilled that God smiled upon me and brought me back to His fold - not once but twice! Now, what I do with this grace is indeed not to keep it bottled up for myself, but it also doesn't mean trying to make others follow the path that's been paved for me. God is present everywhere, including in religions that don't have the gospel. There is that of God in all of His creation - it's His world and universe, after all! To think that a person cannot come to know and love God because she belongs to the wrong religion is small-minded and not what Jesus taught. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:15 that Jesus "indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."
And it is possible to live for Jesus without even realizing that's what you're doing. If we believe Jesus is God, and God is the source of everything, then living for Jesus means dying to self and constantly seeking God's face. That ongoing search and struggle, whether it is rewarded with the grace of Christian faith or not, is what I believe it is all about.
But I'm no Scripture scholar ;) That's why I'm thrilled to know that those who are, those who have been tasked by God to lead His flock here on Earth (Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict) agree.
My hope for others, for those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, is that they also find peace and joy in this life, meaning and means of preparing for the next life, and may their good works be evidence of their desire to know and love God. God will reward each one of us uniquely. I think if more Christians spent more time on themselves, working out their own holiness, they'd be better prepared to enter heaven than focusing on trying to get others to "catch up" with them. There's plenty to do with my own life.
Thank you Jesus for this peace. Amen.
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