Septuagesima 5.2.12 What must I do to be saved
Is it easy to be saved or hard? Opinions vary.
These days most Catholics would be inclined to the view that salvation is easy. We are saved, they would say, because it is almost impossible to be damned. To be bad enough to go to hell you would have to be as bad as Hitler or someone along those lines.
If it is that hard to be damned the question of salvation becomes irrelevant – and it is irrelevant to many Catholics today. Go to a funeral these days and it is a ‘celebration of life’. The only prayer is for those who grieve, and for the dead only those prayers still contained in the liturgy. But the general ‘feel’ of the ceremony is that the deceased person is already and unquestionably in Heaven.
Unfortunately, it is not so easy. St Paul in the Epistle talks of running, fighting, and chastising his body lest he be lost himself. If St Paul were alive today people would laugh politely and assure him there was no chance that he could be lost. But the fact is anyone can go to hell and the higher one’s reputation the more danger. Think of Judas or Lucifer, for that matter.
Why was such effort necessary for St Paul? And presumably for us also?
Salvation in one sense is a straightforward and simple thing. It is a free gift from God, offered to all who will take it up. Our sins can be forgiven readily so long as we are truly sorry for them; and grace is available for all the challenges we meet in life. If we stay on course for the rest of our lives – which is not very long, as compared with eternity – we can be saved.
It sounds easy, put like that.
But we have to fend off temptations if we are to stay on that straight road to heaven.
One of the temptations is Complacency, that sense of self-satisfaction whereby we think ourselves to be good people, simply because we are as good as others around us. But to be saved we have to be as good as Christ! Or at least that we have Him dwelling in us, acting through us, so that we express His will in our thoughts, words and actions.
There are not many people who are so perfect as that? Salvation requires a level of perfection which few could claim in this life.
Of course there is a safety valve insofar as we can still be saved by means of God’s mercy. If we are not perfect we can be made so by receiving His mercy which will purify us of any trouble spots and make us fit for Heaven. This is the purpose of Purgatory and it is the purpose of praying for the dead – that they be first forgiven and then perfected.
St Paul uses the athletic imagery to convey what we have to do to be saved. We must enter the contest, show some sign of interest. We must run as hard as we can – this means using our natural and supernatural gifts to the fullest extent; being enthusiastic, really pitching into the contest, not just dabbling around the edges.
Then we must persevere till the finish line, run the race to the full. Not give up, half way or any other point.
If we are keen, God is much keener still and will shower His graces upon one who really seeks perfection.
In view of today’s Gospel it may be possible to run only the last part of the race. The workers who came in late did not work the full day, but they did work for such time as remained for them. Whatever age we are we can make a commitment to be faithful from this point until the end. Whether 6 or 65 from now till death I will serve the Lord.
Salvation is not easy but it is achievable if only we take some care. Let us encourage each other to finish the race.
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