Who is going to Heaven?
“Me. First of all, me. I am the measuring stick by which I will judge others. I, of course, having forgiven myself, will certainly go to Heaven.”
Too much of Scripture contradicts that for that to be a valid Catholic teaching. Certainly the apostles, who tell us that we must “work out our salvation in fear and trembling” did not teach that we judge ourselves. And of course there is those inconvenient quotes, “Whose sins you shall forgive… and whose sins you shall retain…” and “…confess your sins to one another.”
But that is not the point of this sermon. Here Deacon Michael looks at parables of losing and finding and celebrating. Why should we celebrate? Why does God celebrate?
written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael
IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG WHILE YOU ARE LISTENING:
The answer to Jesus' question about the sheep, and the woman, basically is, "What?!"
We're going to rejoice over someone who has a hundred sheep out in the desert with lions and wolves and bears that he is protecting, one of them wanders off, he leaves 99 in jeopardy, finds the one, brings it home, slaughters it so that they can have a good meal of lamb, and celebrate the fact that he found the lamb, or the woman who lost the coin and then spends the money to hold a party to celebrate? It doesn't make any sense. Maybe it's because I take a jaundiced view.
But it raises a very interesting question. And the responsorial says, "Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord." And then St. Paul tells us, as he does so frequently, of what is necessary to search for the Lord, find the Lord, and prepare ourselves to spend all eternity in Heaven.
The question then becomes, and it is a very important question, that's why I read you part of the consecration of the Blood is: "for many" or "for all"?
The few get through. The rich man gets through the eye of a needle. The narrow path. Or Jesus dying on the cross so all of us have the opportunity for salvation. The 99, and then the one. What is it that is the perception, and how does it make a difference? If "once saved, always saved", what is the impact of that? Are you saved, "I'm working on it." (See his sermon “Are You Saved?”, and “The Laws of Love…” )
Are you saved? "Yes, I was baptized in the Baptist church. I'm saved; once saved, always saved and it doesn't matter what I do; it doesn't matter what I think. I'm saved."
Whoa! What's going on here? Jesus saying, "I've come for sinners." Well, what about the nice righteous people like Mayve? Mayve, forget about it.
"I come for the salvation…" What about those foolish women who let the oil run out? Half of them weren't going to make it. What is going on? (See “The Wise and Foolish Virgins…” )
And I think the reality of what is going on, and what Jesus is telling us, is in the virtue of hope. Because if we have faith, we have the hope of salvation. And Jesus is not saying, "Bam! You're saved!" He is saying that if you have faith in Me, you have the hope of salvation if you live your life in accordance with My teachings.
There is always hope. If you live your life as a life of charity, remember the two Great Commandments, there is always hope.
So it isn't a matter of saying, "Oh! It's all taken care of! We are the body of Christ. Everybody in the body of Christ is saved." If that's the position that is there, that Jesus is there for everybody, including the sinners who are separating themselves from Him, where is the constraint placed on you from sinning? And how can you look at a situation, if I propound and I believe that Jesus died for all are going to go to Heaven, regardless, then the next step, theologically, is, "Beth, it doesn't matter what you do, even if what you are doing is contrary to the teachings of Christ, what you are doing in itself is not wrong because you're going to heaven anyway."
And that idea, and that theology, was very pervasive for a while. It is being restricted now because it lead to consequences. You have heard me talk many times about the Lambeth Conference* on divorce, when I talk about these threads. One of the underlying things about these threads [from the Lambeth Conferences], is that Jesus came for the salvation of all and it does not matter what you do, you are going to be saved. And therefore, what you are doing under the guise of what the conservative people who are closed-minded would consider to be a sin, really is not, because you are going to be saved anyway.
And that is not what Jesus says. The celebration that we see over the lost sheep and the lost coin are equating to the repentance of a sinner. There is a requirement on our part to follow the teachings of Christ. The 99 other sheep were following the teachings of Christ. But Christ is not saying that all are going to be saved, and no matter what you are, you are going to go to Heaven. He is saying the 99 are going to Heaven, but, by the nature of God Himself, by giving His Only Begotten Son, He came for sinners. So He can save us. Just to give an example: Ah, 80% of the people are going to go to Heaven anyway, fifty percent, whatever the percentage is. I love having them there, they're great, we're all set there. But where the celebration is, is with the one who converts, and changes. The metanoia that we talked about. The change that comes from faith.
And that's where the celebration is. It's not on the totality, but it's you and me as sinners. By definition we are human and we are sinners. The celebration of Christ comes when we repent and join Him on the path to being holy.
But see the distinction. The celebration is not for the "all." But the celebration is the salvation that was brought of which many will partake. Many will be saved because they took the opportunity to partake, to have faith in Jesus. To have hope. And to live their lives in charity. And so the theology when you go in and say, for example, "all", it takes away the very elemental part that requires a decision on our part, on an individual basis. Which is Jesus saying, "That's you, and we are going to celebrate."
Similarly when you talk in the Gloria, when you talk about “sin”, instead of “sins”, it puts us on a corporate level, that the sin to be forgiven is all of us as a group. And that all of us, through the forgiveness of "the sin" by Christ, will go to heaven, as opposed to the forgiveness of "sins" including the individual sins that we commit, for which Christ obtained for us the forgiveness of sins through the cross and His resurrection.
So when we listen to these things, and I've said this many times, the words that we use to articulate our Catholic faith, the words that we hear when people talk about Jesus, are extremely important because they have consequences. And one of the consequences, for example, of looking at a corporate sin, for "forgiveness of all", for the sin in the Gloria, it takes away personal responsibility and eliminates the potential that each of us, as a sinner, will be the subject of the celebration in Heaven for the repentance of a sinner, just like the celebration for the lost sheep, or the celebration for the found coin.
November 8, 2018 2
A Lambeth Conference is called every ten years by the Episcopal/Anglican Church to come to a consensus about the beliefs of the Anglican Communion. At these conferences a statement is issued wherein certain beliefs of the last ten years are either affirmed, modified, or rejected. From these conferences have come the acceptance of contraception, divorce, homosexuality, women priests, gay “marriage”, and other attacks against the truth of Catholic faith which comes to us from the apostles.m