Meditations

Since The Father Has Willed That All Be Saved

Since the Father has willed that all be saved, it would seem that the Holy Spirit would not leave the loss of salvation up to misinterpretation. The church alone can be the only sure source of this information. I cannot remember a homily (the only source of teaching to which the average Catholic avails himself) discussing or teaching salvation.

It is probably true, as far as can be known, the category of ‘saved by Baptism, and never having mortally sinned’, will go to heaven. In as much is the other categories, with the possible exception of those living in sin, their ultimate purpose and goal in life is to go to heaven! Then the major thrust of teaching about the Catholic life would be to at least maintain the Status Quo. A second thrust would be to re-evangelize or reconvert the unrepentant or defectors in fact. If this conclusion is so, then all my concerns become somewhat aesthetic-that a personal relationship and a deeper faith are good but not necessary. A further conclusion would be that ‘renewal’ would not be necessary but just a means to at least insure Status Quo and maybe there would be a fringe benefit that some will be inclined to know and serve God a little more.

The problem is that even if the Status Quo’s are going to the Heaven by the very fact of their Baptism, Confession and obedience to Church law, and the majority convey that it is their belief, that as long as the good outweighs the evil, that a merciful God has to give them Heaven.

It should almost go without saying, that the Church and the Clergy agree that this is not all there is to Catholic faith life. But the fact is that this is not what is communicated by the general teaching and implication. I think that a perfect example of this condition is and can be seen in my “three Our Fathers and three Hail Mary’s and sin no more.”. Assuming that God’s forgiveness was the actually rendered, these hundreds of penances simply told me that I got away with my sins and wouldn’t go to hell. From my personal experience I can say that the idea of God’s love for me and my need to actually love Him never came through in those confessions. I believe that this failure of the Church’s understanding of the person in the pew cost me about 40 years of technical estrangement from our God!

My concerns are two-tiered. First! That there are whole bodies of Scripture which indicate that heaven is a result of our relationship with God; that salvation is not a process of homogenization-Baptize them, get them to Mass and putting in their envelopes and, by the process of being Catholic, we have automatically fulfilled our obligations to God; and that when we die, God owes us Heaven as a reward

A corollary to this is that many Protestants have the impression that Catholics think that by being Catholic that they automatically go to Heaven. Where did they get that impression if not from us?

There is a colloquialism which says that, ‘God has no grandchildren!’

I suppose the Church has the already explained this a lot of different ways, but there is a mixed message from our teaching source, the pulpit. If we become the Children of God because our parents have us Baptized then we will still have to live out the commitment which they promised to God for us. We have not forcefully been told or had explained to us that we have to personalize that commitment and acceptance (after the age of reason). The Church’s position seems to be that there is a ‘defacto’ commitment by the very fact of our participation in Mass and the Sacraments. In 50 years I do not remember a Priest ever saying from the pulpit that we do not necessarily gain Heaven just because we’ve gone to Mass or on all or most Sundays, but that we go to Mass because we are children of God and that’s what Catholic Children of the God do-because He is God and because of our relationship to Him.

Is apparent that many pastors and clergy do not want to be the ogre or bad guy and tell us, even a general way, that takes a personal acceptance and commitment as compared to ‘being a member’ and that all members are not automatically saved. Or that all the Rosaries, novenas, etc honor God but do not ‘buy’ Heaven. We don’t earn the Heaven, and certainly not as a group or by just being a member.