Faith or works?

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The classic debate. What gets you to heaven? Protestantism poses the question "is it faith or works?". The Catholic Church would respond, "It is not just faith.". Usually, this is the moment in the conversation where the Bible Christians take off on the rant about how we can only be saved by faith. However, this is because they haven't fully understood why the Catholics said "no". Catholicism says that the answer is still simple but not this kind of simple. Faith without works is dead and works without faith are vain. The debate on whether it is by works or faith is a polarizing issue, however, it is wrong to think about it as faith or works(as if they were exclusive opposites). It must be faith and works, further yet, it is everything by which we are saved.
To conclude that it is either faith or works by which we are saved requires myopic premises:
All that would be saved is pleasing to God
All that is pleasing to God has faith or does good works
Therefore, All that would be saved has faith or good works.
However, this kind of logic is heavily flawed because we are not just called to faith and good works. God is far more interested in our holiness i.e. wholeness of formation. Our trials are not to just test us but to form us. Everything we endure, if we receive it as a gift from God, will make you be more like Christ and His Mother, Who received all that the Father offered them. Truly, there is nothing that is unimportant to God and nothing too small to not be counted.

In conclusion, is anything we give exception? Do you let God dominate your life or just a prayer here and there? “If you are not more righteous than the Pharisees, you shall not be saved?” Salvation is not just bestowed on those who recognize God is God, but on those who live like it. We cannot earn our salvation by ourselves but in cooperation with God’s Grace, which transforms us through loving action. Through such action God reveals Himself, and through such revelation, we don’t just understand but we fall in love. Salvation is not about us but Who and who we are called to love(however did it to them, the two great commandments). Love is action, and are we not called to do it with our entire being(cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-7, cf. Matthew 22:37, cf. Luke 10:27, cf. ).



I am a Theology major attending Holy Apostles College and Seminary. I am a Knight of Columbus and a Newman Ambassador for Pius XII Newman Center.

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