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67. There are some, indeed, who believe that those
who do not abandon the name of Christ, and who are
baptized in his laver in the Church, who are not cut
off from it by schism or heresy, who may then live in
sins however great, not washing them away by
repentance, nor redeeming them by alms--and who
obstinately persevere in them to life's last
day--even these will still be saved, "though as by
fire." They believe that such people will be punished
by fire, prolonged in proportion to their sins, but
still not eternal. But those who believe thus, and
still are Catholics, are deceived, as it seems to me,
by a kind of merely human benevolence. For the divine
Scripture, when consulted, answers differently.
Moreover, I have written a book about this question,
entitled Faith and Works,(142) in which, with God's
help, I have shown as best I could that, according to
Holy Scripture, the faith that saves is the faith
that the apostle Paul adequately describes when he
says, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but the faith
which works through love."(143) But if faith works
evil and not good, then without doubt, according to
the apostle James "it is dead in itself."(144) He
then goes on to say, "If a man says he has faith, yet
has not works, can his faith be enough to save
him?"(145)
Now, if the wicked man were to be saved by fire on
account of his faith only, and if this is the way the
statement of the blessed Paul should be
understood--"But he himself shall be saved, yet so as
by fire"(146) --then faith without works would be
sufficient to salvation. But then what the apostle
James said would be false. And also false would be
another statement of the same Paul himself: "Do not
err," he says; "neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor the unmanly, nor homosexuals, nor
thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom
of God."(147) Now, if those who persist in such
crimes as these are nevertheless saved by their faith
in Christ, would they not then be in the Kingdom of
God?
68. But, since these fully plain and most
pertinent apostolic testimonies cannot be false, that
one obscure saying about those who build on "the
foundation, which is Christ, not gold, silver, and
precious stones, but wood, hay, and stubble"(148)
--for it is about these it is said that they will be
saved as by fire, not perishing on account of the
saving worth of their foundation--such a statement
must be interpreted so that it does not contradict
these fully plain testimonies.
In fact, wood and hay and stubble may be
understood, without absurdity, to signify such an
attachment to those worldly things--albeit legitimate
in themselves--that one cannot suffer their loss
without anguish in the soul. Now, when such anguish
"burns," and Christ still holds his place as
foundation in the heart--that is, if nothing is
preferred to him and if the man whose anguish "burns"
would still prefer to suffer loss of the things he
greatly loves than to lose Christ--then one is saved,
"by fire." But if, in time of testing, he should
prefer to hold onto these temporal and worldly goods
rather than to Christ, he does not have him as
foundation--because he has put "things" in the first
place--whereas in a building nothing comes before the
foundations.
Now, this fire, of which the apostle speaks,
should be understood as one through which both kinds
of men must pass: that is, the man who builds with
gold, silver, and precious stones on this foundation
and also the man who builds with wood, hay, and
stubble. For, when he had spoken of this, he added:
"The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it
is. If any man's work abides which he has built
thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
work burns up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself
shall be saved, yet so as by fire."(149) Therefore
the fire will test the work, not only of the one, but
of both.
The fire is a sort of trial of affliction,
concerning which it is clearly written elsewhere:
"The furnace tries the potter's vessels and the trial
of affliction tests righteous men."(150) This kind of
fire works in the span of this life, just as the
apostle said, as it affects the two different kinds
of faithful men. There is, for example, the man who
"thinks of the things of God, how he may please God."
Such a man builds on Christ the foundation, with
gold, silver, and precious stones. The other man
"thinks about the things of the world, how he may
please his wife"(151) ; that is, he builds upon the
same foundation with wood, hay, and stubble.
The work of the former is not burned up, since he
has not loved those things whose loss brings anguish.
But the work of the latter is burned up, since things
are not lost without anguish when they have been
loved with a possessive love. But because, in this
second situation, he prefers to suffer the loss of
these things rather than losing Christ, and does not
desert Christ from fear of losing such things--even
though he may grieve over his loss--"he is saved,"
indeed, "yet so as by fire." He "burns" with grief,
for the things he has loved and lost, but this does
not subvert nor consume him, secured as he is by the
stability and the indestructibility of his
foundation.
69. It is not incredible that something like this
should occur after this life, whether or not it is a
matter for fruitful inquiry. It may be discovered or
remain hidden whether some of the faithful are sooner
or later to be saved by a sort of purgatorial fire,
in proportion as they have loved the goods that
perish, and in proportion to their attachment to
them. However, this does not apply to those of whom
it was said, "They shall not possess the Kingdom of
God,"(152) unless their crimes are remitted through
due repentance.
I say "due repentance" to signify that they must
not be barren of almsgiving, on which divine
Scripture lays so much stress that our Lord tells us
in advance that, on the bare basis of fruitfulness in
alms, he will impute merit to those on his right
hand; and, on the same basis of unfruitfulness,
demerit to those on his left--when he shall say to
the former, "Come, blessed of my Father, receive the
Kingdom," but to the latter, "Depart into everlasting
fire."(153) |