In the previous post I wrote about present salvation. Here, in the last section, we discuss final salvation. Again, this is mostly for me to get my thoughts out of my head and into written form. If this isn’t your thing, then no worries!
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable." (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).
Future Salvation
We all seek the good, or at least what we perceive as good. Often, we pursue wealth, honor, fame, glory, physical goods, or goods of the soul. However, as St. Thomas Aquinas argues, none of these things constitutes the summum bonum (the highest good). The ultimate purpose of our existence is the Beatific Vision—that is, seeing God and dwelling with Him for all eternity. How do we get there?
We continue to cooperate with God’s grace, as He provides us with everything necessary for this journey. He has bestowed upon us the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Holy Scriptures, and the Sacraments. He has also united us with the Body of Christ—a community to journey alongside. This Body spreads through all time and space, encompassing all who have come before us. Most importantly, He has given us His Son, whose perfect sacrifice has made all of this possible. Praise be to God!
Falling Away
God has granted us freedom, enabling us to accept the abundance of gifts He offers. However, as sinners, we have the capacity to misuse our free will to our own detriment. In our choices, we are capable of falling away and rejecting Christ. Galatians 5:4 warns, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” In a wider context, this serves as yet another instance of Christians attempting to attain salvation through adherence to the Mosaic law, a notion consistently opposed by Paul.
Jesus consistently urges us to remain in him and follow his commands (see John 15:1-8). It seems unlikely that he would offer such a warning unless there were a genuine possibility of us falling away. This underscores the importance of our continual choice to abide in Christ and the potential consequences of turning away from him.
In the Book of Hebrews, there are several warnings against falling away from the faith. One prominent passage is Hebrews 6:4-6, which discusses the danger of apostasy:
"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt."1
This passage emphasizes the seriousness of turning away from the faith after experiencing its blessings. Additionally, Hebrews 10:26-31 warns against willful sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, stating that there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful expectation of judgment.
Being Restored
Nonetheless, the journey of salvation is infused with hope, as “salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11). Even when we commit a mortal sin, a serious transgression of God's law done with full awareness and deliberate consent, resulting in the loss of sanctifying grace—what we term a mortal sin or a sin that “leads to death” (1 John 5:16-17)—there remains hope for the repentant sinner. For Catholics, the sacrament of reconciliation serves as a means of restoration, reattaching the repentant person to the vine of Christ.
"Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.' And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (John 20:20-23).
The authority given to the Apostles (the new ministerial priests) has been passed on to present-day bishops through apostolic succession. In the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Christ who forgives you. As humans with bodies, we perceive the world around us through the senses, including what we hear. God is gracious to our human nature and meets us where we are, especially in the sacraments. Thus, it is comforting to hear that we are forgiven through the words of Christ: “I [Jesus] absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Catholic theology teaches that the priest acts in persona Christi, meaning in the person of Christ. Again, Christ is not bound by the sacraments, so for those who are not Catholic or Orthodox, an act of contrition is done which is a call to repentance and asking the Lord for forgiveness.
In this economy of grace, we can truly celebrate Paul’s words in Romans 8:38-39:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
In conclusion, salvation is a process in which grace is given at each step of the way. Unmerited grace through faith initiates the process, followed by our response—made possible by grace—to cooperate in obedient love, or “faith working through love.” God provides us with everything needed to avoid falling away, and if we do fall away, He offers everything needed for our return. The hound of heaven relentlessly pursues all of us because He loves us with infinite love—not just some of us, but all of us.
This serves as a basic framework for the Catholic comprehension of salvation. While there is plenty of room for further discussion and elaboration, this provides a starting point for grasping the biblical foundation for salvation from a Catholic viewpoint.
Now, let’s return to Brian's story.
“You saved my life.” This comment is sometimes directed my way. Honestly, it makes me uncomfortable, and I am not sure how to respond. “You’re welcome” is the best I can come up with on most days, or “It was my pleasure to care for you.” I like that response better. Anyway, it is not something I think of often—that is, until one year after caring for Brian in the hospital, when I sat around his dinner table with him and his family.
My wife and two girls sat around his dining table, joined by his three children and wife. It was a feast and a celebration of life, lived to the fullest. Laughter filled the air as they shared stories of Brian painting his daughters' nails and surprising them in the morning, jumping out from hidden places. They teased each other and exchanged jokes; the love was palpable.
I smiled and simply listened, feeling myself being swept above, transcending the scene in the heights of my imagination. There were smiling faces, bodies shaking with laughter, a natural flow of conversation, and a supernatural joy that could only be contained in the collective. This joy drifted upward, as if made for another world. A window opened, and heaven and earth became one, revealing a great feast where a multitude gathered—a cloud of witnesses. The Body of Christ—past, present, and future—had joined the celebration and time seemed to fade away. My smile expanded, as my shoulders began to shake with laughter.
This is a difficult passage and I need to look into it further. Is it really impossible to be restored? I think this is describing a situation in which an individual, having received numerous graces and blessings, knowingly and persistently rejects the grace of God to the point where they become impervious to repentance. The "impossibility" lies in the hardness of heart and the willful rejection of grace by the individual rather than in any limitation on God's mercy or the efficacy of the sacrament of Penance. I think…