Reading 1
Jas 2:14-24, 26
What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,”
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.
Indeed someone might say,
“You have faith and I have works.”
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
You believe that God is one.
You do well.
Even the demons believe that and tremble.
Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless?
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 the works.
Thus the Scripture was fulfilled that says,
Abraham believed God,
and it was credited to him as righteousness,
and he was called the friend of God.
See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
For just as a body without a spirit is dead,
so also faith without works is dead.
You can read this passage in the King James, the New American Standard, the NIV, and it says the same thing. "I will show you my faith by my works...faith without works is dead." They all say it; short of intentionally sabotaging the translation, they have to. That's what the original says.
Catholics and Protestants are actually a lot closer to one another on this issue than many realize (or at least would want to admit). I know, I know...Catholicism is a works-based religious system; so say my in-laws. Not to burst any one's bubble here, but the Church is very clear that without God's grace, and specifically without the saving work of the cross, none of us would get to heaven. It's also clear that what it means by "grace" is the same thing the average evangelical, Calvinist, Reformed, or (pretty much you name it) Protestant means. Grace is God's unmerited favor. We don't deserve it, and we can't earn it.
Yes, Catholics believe that.
At the same time, I don't know a good Calvinist who isn't a stickler about the fact that you have to walk the talk. You can talk about grace alone through faith alone 'til the cows come home, but I don't know many people who would look at someone professing Christ and blithely committing what we Catholics would call a mortal sin (you know, murderin', thievin', adulteratin'...the bad stuff) and not have a big, big problem with it.
I knew a Baptist pastor (a very good man) who ran a rescue mission and was a staunch Calvinist. He preached grace from the pulpit, but he also expected accountability from the men and women in his program. For a long-term resident, a relapse resulted in loss of all privileges and 30 days of "house arrest," which looked suspiciously like...well, penance. The program was voluntary, so the house arrest only meant something if the person cooperated with the detention. Otherwise, he or she was free to walk out the front door. My Calvinist friend expected not only contrition from the people in his program, but both penance and reparation. Very, very interesting.
The longer I walk down this road as a Catholic, the more clearly I see what I initially glimpsed in 2001; Catholicism is deeply scriptural. Not only is the liturgy rooted in scripture, but so are our teachings. It's not proof-texting to point to the scriptures and say that baptism saves you, or that works are necessary (along with the appropriation of God's grace) for our ultimate salvation. It's right in there, in context, as clear as day.
