52. Brief Analysis

Experience supports this point. How many people today live by the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s other precepts as a religious practice? How many people today are willing to look their own evils in the face and practice actual repentance, thereby initiating a worshipful life? How many devout people practice a repentance that is more than merely verbal and theatrical — confessing that they are sinners and praying (in obedience to the teachings of the church) that God the Father have mercy for the sake of his Son, who suffered on the cross for their sins, took away the damning effect of those sins, and ritually purged them with his own blood? “May the Son forgive our crimes so that we may be presented spotless before the throne of your judgment.”

Surely everyone can see that this kind of worship is not from the heart; it is only from the lungs. It is external but not internal. We are praying that our sins may be forgiven, yet we are unaware of a single sin within ourselves; and if we are aware of any sin, we either give it our favor and indulgence or else believe that we are purified and absolved of it by our faith without having to do any work of our own.

By way of comparison, this is like a servant coming in with his face and clothes covered in soot and dung, approaching his master, and saying, “Lord, wash me.” Surely his master would tell him, “You foolish servant! What are you saying? Look, there is the water, the soap, and a towel. Don’t you have hands? Don’t they work? Wash yourself!”

The Lord God is going to say, “The means of being purified come from me. Your willingness and your power come from me. Therefore use these gifts and endowments of mine as your own and you will be purified.”

Allow me to mention another example. If you prayed a thousand times both at home and in church for God the Father to protect you for his Son’s sake from the Devil, yet you yourself did not use the freedom the Lord was constantly providing you with to protect yourself from evil or the Devil, you could not be kept safe even by legions of angels sent especially to you by the Lord.

The Lord cannot act contrary to his own divine design. His design is for us to examine ourselves, see our evils, and resist them; and to do this seemingly on our own, although in fact the Lord is helping. Nowadays this does not seem like the gospel, but it is — being saved by the Lord is the gospel.

As for why the worship of our mouths is only acceptable to the Lord depending on how worshipful our lives are: Before God and before angels the sound of our speech reflects how much we long for love and faith; and it is the way we live that determines whether love and faith are present in us or not. If love and faith in God are present in your life, to God and the angels you sound like a dove. If love for yourself and confidence in yourself are present in your life, you sound like a screech owl, no matter how you twist your voice around to mimic the sound of a turtledove. The spiritual quality present within the sound produces this effect.

5. Concerning faith, goodwill, good works, and rewards:

(a) When the apostle says that we are justified by faith and we are justified freely [Romans 3:24, 28], these words are to be understood in the sense that the perpetual consent of the Catholic Church has held and expressed: namely, that we are said to be justified by faith because faith is the beginning of human salvation, and the foundation and root of all justification. Without faith, it is impossible to please God and to come into the company of his children. We are said to be justified freely because none of the things that precede justification — whether faith or works — merit the grace itself of justification. If it is by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace would not be grace (Session 6, chapter 8).

(b) Although no one can be just except those with whom the rewards for the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ are shared, this does in fact happen in the process of justification, when by the merit of that same most holy suffering, the goodwill of God is poured forth by the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who are justified, and becomes inherent in them. As a result, as we are justified and our sins are forgiven, we receive all these [gifts] infused at once through Jesus Christ, onto whom we are grafted through faith, hope, and goodwill. Unless goodwill is added to it, faith does not unite us perfectly with Christ, and does not make us a living member of his body (Session 6, chapter 7, §3).

(c) Christ is not only a redeemer in whom we are to trust but also a legislator whom we are to obey (Session 6, chapter 16, canon 21).

(d) Faith without works is dead and profitless, because in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith that works through goodwill. Faith without hope and goodwill cannot bestow everlasting life. As a result, we immediately hear these words of Christ: “If you will enter into life, keep the commandments.” Therefore, when receiving true and Christian justice, we are told, immediately upon being born again, to preserve it pure and spotless, as the first robe given us through Jesus Christ in lieu of the robe that Adam, by his disobedience, lost for himself and for us, so that we may bear it before the judgment-seat of our Lord Jesus Christ and have life everlasting (Session 6, chapter 7, §4).

(e) As the head into the members and the vine into the branches, Jesus Christ himself continually infuses his virtue into those who have been justified. This virtue always precedes and accompanies and follows our good works; without it they could not in any way be pleasing or meritorious before God. Therefore we must believe that for the justified nothing further is lacking that would in any way diminish their being considered, by the works they have done in God, as deserving of eternal life in due time (Session 6, chapter 16).

(f) Our own justice is therefore not established as our own, as from ourselves; for the justice that is called ours actually belongs to God, because it is infused into us by God through the merit of Christ. Nevertheless God forbid that Christians should either trust or glory in themselves and not in the Lord, whose bounty toward all is so great that he wants things that are his own gifts to be their rewards (Session 6, chapter 16).

(g) We can do nothing of ourselves, as of ourselves; but with the cooperation of him who strengthens us, we can do all things. Therefore we have nothing in which to glory; all our glory is in Christ in whom we live, by whom we merit, and by whom we make satisfaction, bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance, which have their efficacy from him, are offered to the Father by him, and are accepted by the Father through him (Session 14, chapter 8).

(h) If any say that we can be justified before God by our own works (whether done through the power of our own human nature or through following the teaching of the law) without the grace of God through Jesus Christ, let them be anathema (Session 6, canon 1).

(i) If any say that without previous inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and without his help, we can believe, hope, or love [that is, have faith, hope, or goodwill] as we ought, so that the grace of justification may be bestowed upon us, let them be anathema (Session 6, canon 3).

(j) If any say that we can be made just without the justice of Christ through which he gained merit for us, let them be anathema (Session 6, canon 10).

There are many other statements there that could be quoted as well, especially concerning the union of faith and goodwill or good works, and the damnation that comes of separating these two.