WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED?

XV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Lk 10:25-37

The question about salvation

Throughout human history, there have been so many different answers to this important question. In a way, all religions are an attempt at finding an answer and at showing the way to salvation.

As Christians, we believe that the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ, meaning that we accept to become his disciples and follow on his footsteps. We recognise and proclaim him as the "Saviour of the world" (Jn 4:42).

Law and faith - do they exclude each other?

All the Protestant Churches, steadfastly following Luther with more loyalty than the apostolic Tradition, stress the opposition between Faith and Law. Luther, with his experience of fear and anguish, was led to stress a religious experience based on faith, claiming to follow St. Paul, who teaches that one is made righteous only by faith, not by the works of the Law. Since Luther, a lot of teaching about salvation is based on a big misunderstanding of Paul's teaching about Faith and about the Law, leading to the exclusion of good deeds as essential for salvation, with people taking one-sided position with the total exclusion of any stress on other different aspects of the same reality.

Jesus’ answer to the question of salvation

In this Sunday's gospel, we hear Jesus being asked this same question: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Lk 10:25), which is the same as asking: What must I do to be saved?

And Jesus gave a very simple answer in another question: "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" It is surprising that, instead of answering, he forced the one who questioned him - an expert in the Law - to give the answer:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself." After hearing the answer, Jesus added: "Do this, and you will live." That is keep the commandments (the Law) and you will be saved. 

Jesus makes it very clear that to follow the Law - this law of love - is needed to have eternal life (salvation).

We may ask if Paul was not in contradiction of Jesus' teaching, when he spoke about the opposition between Law and Faith. However, we must realise that he was not speaking about the Law of love, since he used similar language to that of Jesus, when he wrote: 

"Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law"(Ro 13:8-10).

Faith implies the acceptance of salvation as a gift

When Paul speaks of the Law, he speaks about the need of circumcision and of the faithful keeping of all rituals, in order to get salvation. And he speaks of proud people with an attitude of self-righteousness, who think that they deserve salvation and may claim it from God. In contrast to that claim of righteousness of those who keep the commandments of the Law, Paul teaches the attitude of Faith of those who recognises their inability to save themselves and who are ready to accept God's gift of merciful and saving love.

Faith without love is useless

The same Paul, who proclaimed the importance of faith for justification and salvation, wrote to the Corinthians that faith without love is useless: "If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." (1 Co 13:2).

In fact, faith is not an isolated virtue or attitude, which acts on itself independently of everything else. That's why James wrote: 

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (James 2:14-17).

True faith is filled with love, and this love of God filling our hearts stands out like a witness to God's presence and action, which strengthen our faith.