In today’s Gospel, we see the importance of doing good works so that we may show the Father’s love to all those around us. Jesus is criticized by the Jews for making Himself equal to God. He responds by telling them that they can only criticize Him for doing this if He is not able to perform the Father’s works; He says in verse 37, “If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me.” He goes on to say that if He is able to perform these good works, then those actions themselves can prove that Jesus is from the Father. This instance actually tells of a rather straightforward idea: when we perform good works in this world, we show others that we are followers of Christ. As John 13:35 conveys, the world will know we are Christians by the love we show.
A point of debate which is often talked about between Catholics and Protestants is that of the doing of good works. Protestants say that we only need faith in Christ to get into Heaven, and while Catholics do believe that salvation is a free gift from God which we must have faith in in order to enter into eternal life, the Church also teaches that we must respond to that gift of grace. James 2:17 even says that if faith does not have works attached to it, then it is dead. If we do not also perform good works once we believe in the Lord, then it is as if we do not truly believe in Him and His love. Catholics do not believe we are saved by these good works; once again, salvation is a free gift from the Lord that we can do nothing to earn. However, when we truly have faith in that free gift, we necessarily perform good works as a response. So, if we just say we have faith but do not think we need to also do good, then our faith in the Lord is not fully true. Jesus Himself says in today’s Gospel that the Father is shown through good works. If we truly believe in Him and what He has done for us, why would we not show Him through the good works he asks of us?
Here is a segment from one I am writing for next year - I think you will enjooy it:
In all honesty, even though I was raised Protestant, I was shocked by the total commitment to the heresy of “once saved always saved” that I encountered when I attended a Southern Baptist university. I brought up such points as that Jesus told several parables such as the seed that was scattered, explaining that some heard and believed but were lost because of evil influence or the cares of the world, or about the man from whom a demon was cast out but the demon came back with others and ended up in a worse state, that Jesus said one must “endure to the end” to be saved, and that Saint Paul said he was still working out his salvation and hoped to “finish the race.” The answer was simply that their doctrine states that one is saved “by faith alone” and salvation cannot be lost. I asked such questions as, “What if someone who believes turns from Christian teaching and becomes a murderer or adulterer? Little did I know at the time, that Martin Luther had written, “No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day.” These heresies are foundational to Protestantism.
So, I asked the obvious question, “What if one loses faith and renounces Christ after having once believed and confessed Him as God?” They answered that the person would still be saved.... if their faith had been real in the first place. But, turning away from God meant they probably never really had faith. “How do you know?” I asked. They answered, “By their fruits you will know them.” So, I pointed out that by their reasoning, no one ever really knows if he is saved, because if he faltered at the end of his life, he would have no way of knowing that he had ever been saved in the first place. “No,” they told me, “We have blessed assurance that we will be saved.” This illogical, circular reasoning went on for months as I tried to wrap my mind around something that truly doesn't make sense..... you are saved unless you are not, and you can't really know but you believe with absolute certainty that you are saved and sin doesn't matter... unless it does.
Spot on! Thank you for this reflection!