Can We 'Earn' Salvation?

Gospel Reflection for August 31, 2025 - Luke 14:1, 7-14

And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched him.

And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them:

When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him:

And he that invited thee and him, come and say to thee, Give this man place: and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place.

But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place; that when he who invited thee, cometh, he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee.

Because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

And he said to him also that had invited him: When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy neighbours who are rich; lest perhaps they also invite thee again, and a recompense be made to thee.

But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind;

And thou shalt be blessed, because they have not wherewith to make thee recompense: for recompense shall be made thee at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 14:1, 7-14 DRA)

One of the most common accusations leveled against Catholics by Protestants is that we believe we can ‘earn Heaven’ through good works. This has been answered countless times over the 500 years since Protestantism began, so it isn’t my intention to answer it here, but for this reflection I would like to explore how the Church had already answered this accusation centuries before the Protestant Revolution, namely in her defeat of the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian heresies.

These 4^th-5^th century sects asserted precisely what Catholics are accused of holding: that by our free will in performing good works we are capable of earning salvation. Though the historic beliefs of Pelagians are much more complicated, this roughly summarizes their main argument. By answering them, the Church proved two things: that God’s grace is required every step of the way toward salvation; and that good works really are meritorious and necessary for salvation.

In today’s parable, Our Lord uses symbolic language to touch on this very point. Notice that He does not say we should never seek honor or reward for our works; in fact He states the exact opposite, just as the first reading from Ecclesiasticus exhorted humility while also teaching, “alms atone for sins.” In both passages Christ teaches us the value of patience and modesty, to recognize that it is God who first moves us by grace to accept Him, who infuses the grace of sanctifying life with the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost at Baptism, who enables us to perform any good work and who gradually sanctifies us so that we are made worthy of Heaven. Without Him we “can do nothing”, (Jn 15:5) yet St. James taught, “Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?” (Jas 2:24) These verses are not contradictory: we are indeed made to do good, but can do no good works without His grace, and the humility required to acknowledge this is what Christ calls us to in today’s parable.

This point is further reinforced by an unstated aspect of this parable: that it is the Master of the ceremony, God Himself, who orders the feast and determines where each one is seated. Humility trains us to submit to God’s order rather than trying to reshape it according to our preferences, much less for any worldly reward. God infuses the degree of grace He wills into each soul, doing so unequally and according to His own perfect design. Thus St. Basil writes,

To take then the lowest place at a feast, according to our Lord’s command, is becoming to every man, but again to rush contentiously after this is to be condemned as a breach of order and cause of tumult; and a strife raised about it, will place you on a level with those who dispute concerning the highest place. Wherefore, as our Lord here says, it becomes him who makes the feast to arrange the order of sitting down. Thus in patience and love should we mutually bear ourselves, following all things decently according to order, not for external appearance or public display; nor should we seem to study or affect humility by violent contradiction, but rather gain it by condescension or by patience. For resistance or opposition is a far stronger token of pride than taking the first seat at meat, when we obtain it by authority. (Catena Aurea)

This is why, among all the virtues, humility is arguably the most distinctively Christian, something almost unheard-of in ancient philosophy but already prefigured in the Old Testament. True humility is not a refusal of greatness, which would be the vice of pusillanimity; nor is it a false modesty that denies the gifts God has given us. Rather, it is a total and utter surrender to God, an honest and grateful acknowledgement of our complete dependence on Him. So, when we accomplish something great, we do deserve praise for it, and we should not deny that we did something good – but we must always be careful to attribute our good work ultimately to God, who made it possible, moved us to desire it and gave us the strength to finish it. Without Him, we can do nothing. Venerable Bede thus interprets this parable mystically:

Whosoever being bidden has come to the marriage feast of Christ’s Church, being united to the members of the Church by faith, let him not exalt himself as higher than others by boasting of his merits. For he will have to give place to one more honourable who is bidden afterwards, seeing that he is overtaken by the activity of those who followed him, and with shame he occupies the lowest place, now that knowing better things of the others he brings low whatever high thoughts he once had of his own works. But a man sits in the lowest place according to that verse, The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things. (Eccles. 3:18.) But the Lord when He cometh, whomsoever He shall find humble, blessing him with the name of friend, He will command him to go up higher. For whoever humbleth himself as a little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. But it is well said, Then shalt thou have glory, that thou mayest not begin to seek now what is kept for thee in the end. It may also be understood, even in this life, for daily does God come to His marriage feast, despising the proud; and often giving to the humble such great gifts of His Spirit, that the assembly of those who sit at meat, i. e. the faithful, glorify them in wonder. But in the general conclusion which is added, it is plainly declared that the preceding discourse of our Lord must be understood typically. For not every one who exalts himself before men is abased; nor is he who humbleth himself in their sight, exalted by them. But whoever exalteth himself because of his merits, the Lord shall bring low, and him who humbleth himself on account of his mercies, shall He exalt. (Catena Aurea)

While the ‘scarlet thread’ of salvation history is Christ’s redemptive sacrifice, it may also be said that the ‘golden thread’ of all human history, from Eden to today, is our God-given desire for what is called divinization, deification or theosis – to become divine. Many see this desire as inherently wrong, but this is completely erroneous. We are created in God’s image and intended to become exact mirrors of Him, to be so conformed to and united with Him in love that we “may be made partakers of the divine nature”. (2 Pt 1:4) But, according to the paradoxical nature of divine Wisdom, we can only attain divine glory by humility. The true choice is not whether to pursue divinity or not, but to pursue divinity by our own power or by God’s power. Satan and our first parents chose the former; the saints choose the latter. Humility is the difference. The same choice is presented to all of us today.

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