Are you saved?

One of our readers asked our thoughts on the ever-popular question, "Are you saved?" (Who needs the royal "we" when you have the editorial "we"?)

It is a question that each of us should be prepared to answer, especially given the frequency of which it is asked.

In addition to what I write below, I would very much recommend that you take a look at Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical Spe salvi, paragraphs 45-48, and this from Catholic Answers. If you don't subscribe to their magazine, The Catholic Answer, you really should. You should also subscribe to This Rock. You might also this article by Paul Thigpen, or this one (for subscribers of The Catholic Answer).

Are you saved?

Most Catholics grow uncomfortable with this question because they aren’t quite sure what to say, or what the questioner means. It seems to me that many of the people who ask this question understand “salvation” in a different way than does a Catholic.

Catholics see salvation as a process while those who ask the question, “Are you saved?” generally see it more as a one-time event. It is almost as though one person sees the question in full color and another sees it in black and white.

Those who ask this question seem to believe that once you “accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior” (to which I’m always tempted to say sarcastically with a maniacal laugh, “Yes, he’s mine, all mine, and you can’t have him!), your place in heaven is assured. Such a presumption rightly makes a Catholic uncomfortable – even confused – because it flatly denies the possibility of sinning mortally, of completely breaking the relationship with God through grave sin.

The Letter to the Hebrews addresses this possibility thus:

For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened [Baptized], who have tasted the heavenly gift [Eucharist], and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit [Confirmed], and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt (Hebrews 6:4-6).

Clearly, it is not simply about a one-time event.

A question very much like this was posed to Saint Joan of Arc during her trial. She was asked, “Are you in a state of grace?” Her reply: “If I am, may God keep me so; I am not, may God make me so” (or something very close to that), a brilliant answer, really, and one that may serve as a model for us here.

Whenever I am asked, “Are you saved?” I answer, “I hope so.” This response is usually greeted with a quizzical and unexpected look and the question, “What do you mean?” Well, I say, “Saint Paul says that we should ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’ (Philippians 2:12). That’s what I’m trying to do.” If salvation were simply dependant on a decision we made once in our life, the Apostle would have no reason to write this statement to the Church at Philippi. Naturally, all of this presupposes faith in the Paschal Mystery, without which salvation is unattainable.

If this explanation does not satisfy the well-meaning inquirer (the ill-meaning inquirer isn’t worth speaking with because they won’t listen to reason), we can point out further still that salvation is indeed a process by turning to additional writings of Saint Paul and to some of Saint Peter.

The Prince of the Apostles writes:

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls (I Peter 1:6-9, emphasis mine).

A little bit further on, he writes. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord” (I Peter 2:2-3, emphasis mine).

In the eyes of Saint Peter, salvation is the reward for a persevering faith, a faith that suffers patiently.

To the Church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul writes, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18, emphasis mine). In his second letter to the Corinthians, he says, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” (II Corinthians 2:15-16, emphasis mine). Yet again, Paul says that through the Gospel “you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain” (I Corinthians 15:1-2, emphasis mine).

If your friend says that salvation comes through faith alone, which he or she is likely to do, kindly remind them of what Saint James says:

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works, and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone (James 2:14-24, emphases mine).

This last verse was the reason why Martin Luther sought to remove the Letter of James from the canon of Sacred Scripture; it flatly contradicts his basic premise, but that is another matter for, perhaps, another day.

Clearly, then, salvation is not assured by faith alone. Even the Lord himself says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Salvation, then, is not a one-time event but a process, for “the love of many will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12-13).

We are not certain of our salvation, but we certainly hope for it and pray for it. We who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ strive and pray to remain faithful in order to attain salvation, our faith’s goal.

How, then, ought we to answer the question, “Are you saved?” With Saint Joan of Arc: If I am, may God keep me so; if I’m not, may God make me so.”

Of course, you can also say, “I have been saved. I am being saved. I will be saved.” That works, too; and it’s perfectly Catholic.