Now this seems like a pretty innocuous topic. Certainly the Good News is that we are saved, and that faith and charitable works are both wonderful and necessary things. And yet misunderstandings about theses central Christian tenants resulted in one of the largest and longest lasting divisions in Western Christianity.
You see, in the early 1500s there was an Augustinian monk living and studying in Germany who, quite frankly, suffered from a certain morbidity and scrupulosity. Even his most minor breaches of discipline, his smallest infractions of the rules, threw him into a profound state of remorse in which he would torture himself with mortifications. Even the Sacraments of the Church offered him no consolation.
While this monk’s despair and ascetical extremes were in opposition to the Church’s true teaching, and even his spiritual director’s advice, the monk blamed his torment on the Church’s teaching about salvation and good works. And he conflated this reasoning with righteous anger about abuses he perceived in the Church, such as the sale of indulgences.
And so, on October 31st, 1517 he nailed an academic thesis to the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral. You may have guessed, that this monk was, of course, Martin Luther – and his theological thesis led to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church’s response at the Council of Trent, and the split of Western Christianity.
As so often happens in our own lives, Luther had swung from one extreme to the other in his understanding of faith and works. The undue importance he had previously placed on works, on his own strength in battling sinfulness and vice, he now completely rejected. Instead, he claimed that because of original sin, humanity was totally depraved and that all works, even if directed towards the good, were merely fruits of our fallen will. Faith alone, he contended, could save us.
To put it simply, things degenerated quickly from there. Luther’s theological critique became enmeshed in politics and ultimately his split from the Church became complete. In the centuries that followed, Catholics and Protestants, especially Lutherans, have misrepresented and misunderstood each other, and their belief in justification, salvation, faith and works.
Sparing you a blow-by-blow description of the several hundred years of theology that follows Luther’s split from the Church, it suffices to say that people on both sides were right sometimes, wrong other times, and sadly were often uncharitable, even violent toward the other side.
However, the good news is that in 1999 after many years of peaceful theological dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans, the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. Despite significant differences that still remain in our understandings of the Sacraments and the nature of the Church, Catholic and Lutheran theologians and bishops were able to put past condemnations and misperceptions aside, and find the ways we think in common about justification, faith and works.
Today’s second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans is one of the crucial passages that the Joint Declaration points to in order to explain how we are justified. Paul writes: “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.”
This makes clear that nothing we can do can merit salvation. We are indeed fallen creatures, descendants of Adam, vulnerable to the effects of sin. No amount of our prayer, penance or generous actions, no following of the Law could possibly make this situation right. Only by the grace of God are we justified, saved, made righteous through the saving life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Faith is our acceptance of God’s saving action in our lives – and even faith is itself a gift from God that we cannot earn or achieve of our own. And yet, faith is a gift that we must freely choose to accept into our lives – must cooperate with and seek to strengthen through prayer, through observance of God’s commandments, and through the Sacraments. Faith, once accepted and nurtured becomes the bedrock of our lives and the source of the good works we accomplish through God’s grace – works which themselves serve to increase the grace that is active within us.
Given these understandings of faith and works we can properly understand today’s Scriptures and can take up the challenge they offer us.
First, in regards to faith: In today’s first reading, Moses puts before the people a choice between a blessing and a curse. And in the Gospel, Jesus gives His disciples the choice to listen to his words and act on them, or to dismiss them and go their own way.
We have the same choice placed before us in the life of discipleship: we must choose whether or not we will cooperate with God’s gift of faith. We can choose to rely on ourselves, on our own determination and power in our attempts to avoid sin and do good; we can be convinced that the quality of our lives is enough to save us– or we can place our trust in Jesus Christ, having faith in His saving power at work within us.
If we build our discipleship on the foundation of our own strength, our own good efforts in Jesus’ name, we know what will happen when storms of failure, or criticism, or suffering buffet our house. Like the house built on sand that Jesus describes in the Gospel, we are likely to collapse and come to ruin. However, if our discipleship has its foundation in Jesus Christ, then we will be able to survive the storms of our life. We will see that our sufferings are a share in His Passion, and we will be able to lean on His strength to sustain us.
Second, in regard to good works: Besides being firmly established, our faith must be visible to others, because faith is never merely a private, interior matter. For faith to be authentic, the signs of our discipleship must be as obvious to others as the Scriptures themselves would be if they were worn on our arms and placed on our foreheads – just as Moses prescribes in the first reading, and as orthodox Jews still do today when they are at prayer. Like a wedding band on your ring finger, our lives, our daily works, are meant to show the world to whom we are committed.
What do our lives and life-styles say about our discipleship? Can people tell you are a disciple of Jesus Christ by the decisions you make, and by the way that you live your life? In the words of a wonderful Catholic poster I remember seeing in the halls of my high school: “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
However, the good news is that in 1999 after many years of peaceful theological dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans, the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. Despite significant differences that still remain in our understandings of the Sacraments and the nature of the Church, Catholic and Lutheran theologians and bishops were able to put past condemnations and misperceptions aside, and find the ways we think in common about justification, faith and works.
Today’s second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans is one of the crucial passages that the Joint Declaration points to in order to explain how we are justified. Paul writes: “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.”
This makes clear that nothing we can do can merit salvation. We are indeed fallen creatures, descendants of Adam, vulnerable to the effects of sin. No amount of our prayer, penance or generous actions, no following of the Law could possibly make this situation right. Only by the grace of God are we justified, saved, made righteous through the saving life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Faith is our acceptance of God’s saving action in our lives – and even faith is itself a gift from God that we cannot earn or achieve of our own. And yet, faith is a gift that we must freely choose to accept into our lives – must cooperate with and seek to strengthen through prayer, through observance of God’s commandments, and through the Sacraments. Faith, once accepted and nurtured becomes the bedrock of our lives and the source of the good works we accomplish through God’s grace – works which themselves serve to increase the grace that is active within us.
Given these understandings of faith and works we can properly understand today’s Scriptures and can take up the challenge they offer us.
First, in regards to faith: In today’s first reading, Moses puts before the people a choice between a blessing and a curse. And in the Gospel, Jesus gives His disciples the choice to listen to his words and act on them, or to dismiss them and go their own way.
We have the same choice placed before us in the life of discipleship: we must choose whether or not we will cooperate with God’s gift of faith. We can choose to rely on ourselves, on our own determination and power in our attempts to avoid sin and do good; we can be convinced that the quality of our lives is enough to save us– or we can place our trust in Jesus Christ, having faith in His saving power at work within us.
If we build our discipleship on the foundation of our own strength, our own good efforts in Jesus’ name, we know what will happen when storms of failure, or criticism, or suffering buffet our house. Like the house built on sand that Jesus describes in the Gospel, we are likely to collapse and come to ruin. However, if our discipleship has its foundation in Jesus Christ, then we will be able to survive the storms of our life. We will see that our sufferings are a share in His Passion, and we will be able to lean on His strength to sustain us.
Second, in regard to good works: Besides being firmly established, our faith must be visible to others, because faith is never merely a private, interior matter. For faith to be authentic, the signs of our discipleship must be as obvious to others as the Scriptures themselves would be if they were worn on our arms and placed on our foreheads – just as Moses prescribes in the first reading, and as orthodox Jews still do today when they are at prayer. Like a wedding band on your ring finger, our lives, our daily works, are meant to show the world to whom we are committed.
What do our lives and life-styles say about our discipleship? Can people tell you are a disciple of Jesus Christ by the decisions you make, and by the way that you live your life? In the words of a wonderful Catholic poster I remember seeing in the halls of my high school: “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
In the first reading, Moses tells the people: “Take these words into your heart and soul.” Jesus Christ is that Word, planted in our hearts and souls, justifying us, showing us the fundamental truths of who we are, where we come from, and how we must live our lives. May we have the faith necessary to profess our belief in Him on our lips and in our daily actions.
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