7th Sunday after Pentecost 7.7.13 Certainty of salvation
It is not those who say Lord, Lord who will necessarily be saved. (Gospel)
Can we be sure, or make sure, that we are saved? One day we will have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. What will He make of us?
We want to make sure we have it right.
Can we be certain of our salvation? Protestant Christians tend to claim certainty, and in these relaxed times many Catholics would assume they are saved - but can we be sure?
We do not claim certainty of salvation because there is always the possibility of falling from grace, but we can reach a point where the probability of salvation approaches a practical level of certainty.
I might fall from grace but I can do things to make sure that is very unlikely. This is the approach we need to take.
It comes to this: we either obey God in all things, or we ask His mercy for when we have disobeyed Him.
If we are good, good. If we are bad, we become good – by the mercy and grace of God.
All the while we are reflecting on our lives, on our attitudes, our thoughts, words, actions; looking at all aspects of our lives from a spiritual point of view.
What does God want me to do? Do I need to change the way I think or act? Do I need to give up some vice, or develop some virtue?
We need to think about these things, so we are not just drifting along.
Drifting is highly likely to lead us into worldly thinking – living by the flesh and not the spirit.
We are always asking for mercy for whatever we have not got right; and for grace to make any necessary changes.
This will keep us on guard against complacency so we do not fall from grace.
Thus we increase the probability of salvation to the point that it is certain for all practical purposes; but not to the point that we go about boasting of that certainty – lest overconfidence cause us to fall; and also lest we give scandal to others by way of making them presumptuous.
In the Church there have always been the two extremes of Presumption and Despair.
Presumption is when people take their salvation for granted. I know I sin, but so what, God will forgive me.
Or when they say: I do not sin at all (which a lot of people today would say).
Despair is when people do not believe they can be forgiven, not even by God.
Presumption is probably the more common problem in the Church today.
We must avoid both extremes.
The sensible position is to say we have a confident hope of salvation; and this hope can be increased to the point of practical certainty.
Act of Hope: O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.
Having this hope we then maintain it and increase it. We have to bring the plane into land, so to speak. We are on course for a safe landing but we still have to concentrate on all the essentials. We are not home yet.
Those who say, Lord Lord, can be saved after all - provided we say it with genuine feeling and commitment.
Everything is possible by grace and nothing is possible without it. So we pray that we remain vigilant to the end.
There is a partnership between God and us. He is trying to bring us home. We are trying to get home. It is not so hard if we see it in these terms.
May it be a soft landing for all of us!
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