Faith and works: the judgment a pastor never saw coming

Faith and works: the judgment a pastor never saw coming

A Protestant pastor recounts that, in a near-death experience he himself describes, he found himself before the judgment and discovered his faith was one of convenience. That scene is the trigger for a debate as old as Christianity itself: is salvation won by believing or by doing? The short answer, the one Catholic doctrine holds according to one of the participants, is that neither works on its own: faith justifies, but if it is genuine it brings works with it. The long answer is what this text is about.

The starting point is not theological but biographical. The one who opens the discussion says he always believed the scales tipped toward works, and cites Matthew: the son who says "I won't" and then goes to the vineyard does the father's will, not the one who says "I will" and stays home. To that he adds the passage about the house on rock: calling Jesus Lord is not enough, you have to do what he says. Up to that point, plain evangelical common sense.

The judgment dream and the workplace conflict

The anecdote at the heart of the matter is a dream. After a prayer before sleep, he asks to see what his judgment would be like, convinced he had grown spiritually since his conversion. In the dream, a serious professional conflict with a colleague is laid before him. It is acknowledged that the other man was more at fault and that difficult circumstances were at play, but the answer comes that he was a Christian, knew the word, and did not live by it. No excuses. He accepts the judgment as fair and asks to wake up before the sentence is pronounced.

There lies the core: the question is not whether he believed, but whether his conduct bore out that belief. The conclusion drawn is that neither faith alone nor works alone, but a third element: denying the life of the world and accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the "being born again" Jesus speaks of. And a nuance about works: the effect matters less than the desire with which they are done. Saving a life while expecting a reward has no merit.

The Catholic answer: grace, sacraments and confession

Against the Protestant "sola fide," Catholic doctrine holds, as argued in the debate, that justification is by faith, but a faith that enables grace and, if genuine, produces works. The Catechism develops this from paragraph 1987 onward. The practical difference lies in the sacraments: confession allows one to receive forgiveness, something that, it is argued, Protestantism leaves crippled by relying only on asking God for forgiveness.

The objection comes quickly: going to confession is not enough. It is recalled that Saint Teresa of Jesus had a vision of many Catholics on their way to hell for not being properly confessed, and the case is mentioned of a priest whose near-death experience, similar to the pastor's, did end in damnation. Sincere repentance is the condition; the rite without it is worthless paper.

Purgatory as the middle answer

The piece that completes the puzzle is purgatory: whoever passes through it is saved, but needs to be purified. The Orthodox do not develop the doctrine; Protestants assume "once saved, always saved," which in practice coincides with Catholic salvation, though their theology admits no degrees or levels in the process. And then there are those who would prefer a thousand reincarnations to purify themselves, not understanding that forgiveness and justification are not settled by reincarnating.

Faith that is never experienced is just theory

The most uncomfortable criticism comes not from theology but from experience. It is argued that a faith that is not perceived, that is not experienced, remains an intellectual exercise: one can be a trained theologian and have never lived anything. Hence the reproach to missionaries who spoke of the ineffable without having experienced it, and the diagnosis of Europe's religious collapse: faith was sustained by lack of education and social pressure, and that pressure is dissolving.

No one delivers the closing line. If salvation depends on sincere repentance and not on a formality, how many of those who go to confession every Sunday would come out unscathed from a dreamed-up judgment?