October 23, 2006
Do you know any Christians who don’t need a Saviour?
I’ve met many along the way. Sometimes in very direct attempts at evangelization I’ve asked people why they think they will go to Heaven. Often the response is something like, “Why not? I haven’t killed anyone. I haven’t robbed a bank. . .” There is a sort of automatic presumption that this is simply a natural progression, that we must have a sort of universal human right to go there.
The Scriptures tell us that God desires that all people be saved. The Scriptures also tell us He has a hard time saving someone who doesn’t realize he or she is drowning—someone who is convinced of his or her self-sufficiency. The rich man in today’s Gospel (Lk 12:13-21) suffers from that delusion. Living in a time and society of amazing wealth and comfort can easily draw us into the same delusion. The first reading from Mass, on the other hand, reminds us that “God is rich in mercy” only after previously reminding us that we “were dead because of [our] sins and offenses” (see Eph. 2:1-10). In other words, we were as good as dead if left to ourselves.
Good religious people can also forget they need a Saviour. We can easily slip into a comfortably Pelagian state of mind, (or at least semi-Pelagian) convinced without wanting to say so that we’ve earned our ticket to eternal life. The Letter to the Ephesians goes on to make it clear for everyone that “it is owing to His favor that salvation is yours through faith. This is not your own doing, it is God’s gift; neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it.” The merits of the saints are still merely responses to God’s initiative, or as the next line says, “We are truly His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to lead the life of good deeds which God prepared for us in advance.” As Catholics we know that “being saved” is not a one-shot deal; it is a gift that we must respond to each day. The more we realize how desperately poor we are, the more He can pour in the riches of His mercy. Thank God He is our Saviour!
Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
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